Up to 15,000 euros

Escape to Europe is becoming increasingly expensive for migrants

Refugees are at the mercy of the smuggling gangs. The smugglers demand more and more money.

(Bild: Christian Schulter)

The more difficult, the more expensive: as the risk of being caught increases, the smuggling mafia is raising the prices for illegal migration to the extreme. Smugglers now collect up to 15,000 euros from each immigrant. Three perpetrators were arrested at a rest stop on the A3 in Burgenland.

An alert local resident had raised the alarm when he had accidentally observed "a number of strangers frantically jumping out of a minibus near Mattersburg at midday and making off in fright".

Successful manhunt
The witness immediately reported his suspicious observations to the police. A manhunt was launched. It wasn't long before the officers were able to track down not only the wanted "minibus" but also the vehicle of an accomplice at the rest stop in Hornstein and unmask it as a smuggler's van.

More than 20 migrants
The handcuffs clicked for the two drivers and their companion. They had brought more than 20 refugees to Austria via Hungary in their two vehicles. The migrants were probably mainly men from Syria.

The accomplices of the smuggling mafia were on the road with more than 20 refugees.

(Bild: Christian Schulter)

The smugglers' vehicles came to an end at the petrol station on the A3 in Hornstein.

(Bild: Christian Schulter/Christian Schulter, Krone KREATIV)

The trio is in custody. As it turned out in the course of the investigation, the smugglers are said to have collected horrendous sums of money from the refugees. The route via Burgenland to Western Europe has long been considered a "luxury route" in the business of the smuggling mafia.

"Luxury route" costs more
Prices for fleeing to the EU are rising dramatically. Afghans, Syrians, Moroccans and migrants from other countries have to dig even deeper into their pockets for the organized escape than before. "The route is now thousands of euros more expensive for them because the risk of being caught has increased enormously. And no immigrant wants to apply for asylum in Hungary," say experts on the migration scene.

Depending on the distance, refugees now have to fork out between 7,000 and 15,000 euros. "This means that the criminal network's profit has more than doubled in just one year," says an insider.