The Austrian police, struggling to stanch an influx of migrants, began spot checks of vehicles crossing from Hungary overnight, finding 200 migrants stashed in various ways and arresting five people suspected of being smugglers, the authorities said on Monday.

Traffic backed up on the Hungarian side of the border after the introduction of the traffic controls, but the Austrian authorities argued that they had no choice but to carry out the measures after the deaths of 71 migrants, including three children and a baby girl, whose decomposing bodies were found in a truck on a highway southeast of Vienna on Thursday, reported the New York Times on Monday.

While thousands have drowned at sea trying to cross the Mediterranean and enter Europe, the mass deaths on the road shocked the Continent and reverberated around the world.

“We want to save lives and fight the criminal smugglers,” said Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria’s interior minister. Asked how long the controls would be in place, she said the time period was “unlimited.”
Source: MENA