Hungary sends four to prison for 71 suffocation deaths

BUDAPEST, Hungary — A Hungarian court on Thursday sentenced four human traffickers to 25 years in prison each for their roles in the 2015 case in which 71 migrants suffocated and died in the back of a refrigerated truck found on a highway in Austria.

The principal defendant, an Afghan man, and three Bulgarian accomplices were found guilty in the southern city of Kecskemet of being part of a criminal organization and committing multiple crimes, including human smuggling and murder.

Ten other defendants, mostly Bulgarians, were given prison terms ranging between three and 12 years. Three of the men convicted are fugitives.

In total, 59 men, eight women and four children from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan suffocated in the back of a refrigerated truck with Hungarian licence plates. The truck was found abandoned in the emergency lane of a highway near Parndorf, Austria, near the Hungarian border, on Aug. 27, 2015.

The migrants had boarded that truck near the village of Morahalom, at Hungary’s southern border with Serbia, before heading toward Austria.

According to prosecutors, who had requested life sentences for the four main defendants, the 71 victims “suffocated in horrendous conditions three hours after the departure,” while still in Hungary.

In France, meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed that he will host Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte today amid an escalating dispute between the two countries over migration. The Elysée said that Macron and Conte spoke by phone on Wednesday.

Italy had demanded an apology after the French president accused its new populist Italian government of irresponsible behaviour for refusing to allow a rescue ship carrying 629 migrants to dock at an Italian port.

Macron said he “had not made any comment intended to offend Italy and the Italian people,” the statement said.

Spain on Monday announced it would allow the 629 migrants to dock at the port of Valencia, where they are expected to arrive Sunday morning.

Bad weather has forced the convoy of ships now carrying them to take a detour after high waves caused some of the exhausted migrants aboard to be seasick.

The migrants are travelling from the central Mediterranean Sea aboard the Aquarius, a rescue vessel operated by aid group SOS Méditerranée, and two boats of the Italian government.

Spanish deputy Prime Minister Carmen Calvo said authorities would examine case by case if the migrants qualify for asylum according to the country’s regulations. Calvo said minors and women were a priority, especially those who might have been trafficked or exploited in their attempts to reach Europe.

In the aftermath of a separate rescue in waters off Libya, the U.S. navy said it was still awaiting a decision on where it could disembark 40 African migrants it rescued at sea after a smugglers’ boat capsized on Tuesday.

Lt. Cmdr. Zachary Harrell, a spokesman for the U.S. 6th Fleet, said the survivors aboard the Trenton, a support ship, included four minors and came from countries including Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

U.S. navy rescuers also spotted 12 “not responsive” persons in the sea, but they were unable to retrieve any bodies.