Hungary Arrests 27 Romanians for Trafficking Refugees

The Romanian Embassy in Budapest said on Monday that Hungarian police have arrested 27 Romanians over the last week for their alleged involvement in human trafficking.

The Austrian authorities also confirmed the detention of two Romanian drivers on Saturday night.

Inside their minivan when they were stopped were 26 people from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who had boarded the truck in Hungary. Three badly dehydrated young children found in the van were hospitalised.

Austria introduced extra checks on vehicles entering the country from Hungary on Sunday evening, concentrating on larger vehicles with space to hide people.

The checks were stepped up after a truck containing the bodies of 71 dead migrants was found last week parked along the Budapest-to-Vienna highway. They are believed to have suffocated.

Four Bulgarians and an Afghan have been detained so far for their suspected involvement.

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the incident showed that the EU needs a united policy on refugees and migrants to prevent criminals cashing in on their plight.

"The solution is not to increase border controls but to open more legal ways to Europe," Mikl-Leitner said.

"With legal ways we can protect refugees and the criminals have no business," she added.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has also urged European authorities to crack down on people-smugglers.

The latest arrests came as the flow of refugees and migrants trying to reach European countries continued. The UN says the continuing conflict in Syria is a major factor behind the recent rise in refugee and migrant numbers.

A record number of 107,500 refugees and migrants reached the EU's borders in July.