Slovak Police Catch Iraqi with Asylum in Austria Smuggling Migrants

Slovak Police Catch Iraqi with Asylum in Austria Smuggling Migrants

Bratislava, October 9 (TASR) – The Slovak police have pressed charges of people smuggling against an Iraqi national in possession of asylum documents from Austria who was caught with four illegal migrants on the D2 motorway near the former Cunovo-Rajka checkpoint on the Slovak-Hungarian border last week, Slovak Police Corps spokesperson Denisa Baloghova reported on Monday.


The Iraqi national, identified only as Thamer K., 35, was driving a vehicle containing two Iranians, one Syrian and one Turk, none of whom had documents allowing them to stay in Slovakia.

Further investigation has revealed that the two Iranians paid the smugglers €10,000 each for taking them from Serbia to Germany. Meanwhile, the Syrian and Turkish migrants, who were travelling from Turkey to Germany, paid €10,000 and €7,000, respectively.

While 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.