Migrant smuggler captured near Slovak-Hungarian border

The Slovak police caught a migrant smuggler near Slovak-Hungarian border last week, Slovak Police Corps spokesperson Denisa Baloghova said Monday.

The smuggler, an Iraqi national in possession of asylum documents from Austria, was driving four illegal migrants on the D2 motorway near the former Cunovo-Rajka checkpoint on the Slovak-Hungarian border when he was captured, said Baloghova.

The Iraqi national, Thamer K., 35, was driving a vehicle with two Iranians, one Syrian and one Turk. They have no documents allowing their stay in Slovakia.

"Further investigation has revealed that the two Iranians paid the smuggler 10,000 euros (11,746 U.S. dollars) each for taking them from Serbia to Germany. Meanwhile, the Syrian and Turkish migrants, who were travelling from Turkey to Germany, paid 10,000 euros and 7,000 euros respectively," said Baloghova.

The Iraqi was placed in a police cell and could spend up to ten years in prison if convicted. The four migrants were officially expelled to Hungary and will be banned from entering Slovakia or any other EU-member country for five years, according to the spokesperson.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)