Smugglers with 20 people cooped up in the car stopped at the border

The driver was arrested, the majority of those who were being dragged back to Austria, the Passau police said on Monday.

The 20 people were therefore unsecured and cooped up in the trunk and on the back seat of the Mercedes with a German license plate. They told the officials that they were “unharmed and in good health”. Those affected may have been picked up by the smuggler in Hungary.

The 39-year-old driver identified himself with a Moldovan passport. A preliminary investigation was initiated against him for smuggling in foreigners with a serious health hazard. The police turned 19 people back to Austria, and one man was handed over to the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.