Refugee children, close to death, found in van in Austria
Three young children suffering from dehydration and close to death have been rescued from a van crammed with 26 refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Austrian police said on August 29 .
The two girls and a boy, aged five and six, were found in a dire state when police stopped the vehicle after a chase near the Austrian town of St. Peter am Hart on the border with Germany, a police spokesman said. They are recovering in hospital.
"The emergency doctor told us they would not have made it much longer - two, maybe three hours," said David Furtner, police spokesman for Upper Austria province.
The incident follows the discovery of the corpses of 71 refugees in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian highway on August 27 - victims of an unfolding tragedy as refugees and migrants escaping conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East flock to Europe in unprecedented numbers.
The International Organization for Migration estimates a third of a million people have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, leaving from Libya, Turkey and other countries to land in Europe.
Hundreds have drowned in shipwrecks but the recent deaths on land have exposed another horrific side of the people-smuggling racket.
"The driver did not give a damn about the people in the back. We would not transport animals under these conditions on our roads in Austria," said Furtner, referring to August 28's discovery.
Austria lies on the way from poorer countries in southern and eastern Europe where many refugees first land, such as Greece, to more prosperous nations in the north and west.