Austrian, Czech, German police crack down on traffickers smuggling Chechens into Western Europe (Prague Watchdog) - The Austrian, Czech, and German police have jointly cracked down on an international gang smuggling people into Western Europe, mostly immigrants from Chechnya, the Middle East and Central Asia.
Sixteen people suspected of taking part in this trafficking were arrested in the Czech Republic this week. The arrests began in Prague on Tuesday and ended in seven Southern Bohemian and Moravian cities on Wednesday; and simultaneous police operations also took place in Austria and Germany. A total of 29 people were arrested in all three countries. The detainees mostly come from the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.
For over a year the Czech police had been monitoring the activities of a 16-member gang who were smuggling people from Arabic countries; and in recent months the gang focused on the Caucasians, mostly Chechens coming from Poland to the Czech Republic. According to the Czech police, these refugees were then smuggled into Austria where the local gang, now captured by the Austrian police, got them into Western Europe, especially the Benelux countries.
The Czech police stated that during their year-long surveillance up to the final capture, the gang operating in the Czech Republic had smuggled at least 1,500 people and garnered over one million euros.
During this past summer allegations emerged about a “critical situation bordering on humanitarian disaster" and “gross human rights violations of Chechen refugees in the Czech Republic." In September a specialist familiar with this issue told Prague Watchdog that “the situation might be related to the fact that some Chechen refugees have already paid smugglers for transport to Austria, and therefore they are seriously urging Czech institutions to shorten the registration process in the Vyšní Lhoty camp“.
Chechen refugees began arriving in the Czech Republic in the mid-90s, when the first Chechen war broke out. This past spring the number of Chechen asylum seekers in the Czech Republic steeply rose and Chechens have been the largest group in the past months asking for asylum in the Czech Republic.
(T/E) RELATED ARTICLES:
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· Czech Interior Ministry considering repatriation of Chechen refugees who came from Poland (PW, 9.5.2003)
· Dozens of Chechens from refugee camps in Poland apply for asylum in the Czech Republic (PW, 18.4.2003)
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