Bavaria, Austria coordinate plans to tighten border control against human traffickers

Police from the southern German state of Bavaria and Austria on Monday announced they are coordinating plans to tighten checks on highways and borders in the fight against human traffickers.

There have been special checks on Bavarian highways near the border with Austria since Monday morning, believed to have helped arrest traffickers and bring smuggled people to protection.

The Austrian side has started executing similar checks.

A new joint information gathering and evaluation location will be set up in the southern German city of Passau and staffed by experts from Bavarian Police, German Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Office of Austria.

"Unscrupulous smugglers work purely for profit. The health and lives of the people do not matter, as the tragedy of the 70 dead refugees last week in Austria shows," Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said Monday.

According to media reports, a number of refugees are dropped every day on highways in Bavaria near the border with Austria and left to their own fate.

Source: XINHUA