Migrants’ deaths lead to jail terms
Traffickers sentenced in Austrian suffocation case
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 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 France, meanwhile, President Emmanuel Macron’s office confirmed he will host Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday amid an escalating dispute between the two countries over migration.
Italy had demanded an apology after the French president accused its new populist Italian government of irresponsible behavior 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 Sunday morning.
In the aftermath of a separate rescue off Libya, the U.S. Navy said it was still awaiting a decision on where it could disembark 40 African migrants it rescued 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. Navy rescuers also spotted 12 “not responsive” persons in the sea, but they were unable to retrieve any bodies.
The Trenton initially had asked a private rescue ship off Libya, the Sea Watch-3, if it would take aboard the migrants. But Sea Watch said it couldn’t unless the Rome-based rescue coordination center assigned it a safe port.
That didn’t happen, so the 40 migrants stayed aboard the Navy vessel.