Hungary to Reinstate Border Controls with Romania Starting January 1
Hungary is set to implement border controls with Romania starting January 1, coinciding with Romania’s accession to the Schengen area by land
The Austrian and Hungarian authorities have dismantled an Austrian-based organised crime ring involved in the smuggling of migrants.
Europol’s European Migrant Smuggling Centre (EMSC) has supported the operation.
“The group was composed of 25 Russian nationals of Chechen origin residing in Austria. The Austrian-based key facilitator was recruiting drivers in Austria and deploying them to Hungary. He was in permanent contact with the recruiters who had been tasked to recruit migrants in refugee camps in Hungary,” the European police organisation said in a statement on Monday.
The crime ring is suspected to have smuggled over 200 individuals before being dismantled, Europol added.
Arrests of suspects involved in people smuggling were made in Austria, Hungary and Slovakia during the operation.
The smuggled migrants were asylum-seekers of Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian nationality who had left without permission the reception centres they were residing in.
The smugglers were charging around EUR 300 per person for a trip from Hungary to Vienna and EUR 700 to 800 from Hungary to Germany, according to the statement.
A man was arrested after stabbing another driver following a traffic accident in Sofia
A Bulgarian man, 39-year-old Mariyan Grudev, has been sentenced to life in prison in England for rape and attempted rape
The Sofia City Court has ordered a 22-year-old woman, who stabbed three passers-by in the capital, to be placed in the psychiatric clinic at Lovech prison for a 30-day examination
Pre-trial proceedings have been launched for attempted murder following a knife attack in Sofia that left three men injured
The Sofia District Prosecutor's Office is seeking a court order to detain Ksenia Plachkova and place her in a psychiatric facility for evaluation
A 22-year-old woman was arrested in Sofia on charges of attempted murder after stabbing three men in separate incidents near the South Park entrance and on Vitosha Boulevard
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