Hungary sends smugglers to prison for 71 suffocation deaths
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — 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 to death 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 that he will host Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte on Friday amid an escalating dispute between the two countries over migration. The Elysee 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 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.
Conte said the chat with Macron had been “very 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 may 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. 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 survivors. But Sea Watch, wary of embarking on an odyssey similar to what befell the Aquarius, said it couldn’t unless the Rome-based rescue coordination center assigned it a safe port within navigation distance.
That didn’t happen, so the 40 survivors stayed aboard the Navy vessel.