500 euros wage per trip

Routes spied out: two years in prison for trafficker

He was supposed to track down police checks and warn his trafficking companions in good time. In return, a Tunisian man collected 500 euros per trip, but the gang was caught. The 27-year-old had to answer for trafficking in human beings at Linz Provincial Court on Thursday.

A gang of smugglers had brought migrants from Hungary to Austria and on to Germany on a large scale. Some of the people being smuggled were crammed into vans in very confined spaces. Oxygen was scarce, breaks were rare.

Routes spied out
A 26-year-old from Tunisia was involved in five journeys in August 2023 as a passenger in a so-called reconnaissance vehicle. His task: to find a route on which the traffickers would not be caught by the police. That went wrong, he was arrested in Rohrbach in October and had to answer for smuggling at Linz Regional Court on Thursday.

"I am sorry"
There he ruefully admitted everything and said: "I'm sorry." His confession and previous integrity were considered mitigating factors in the sentencing. However, the fact that he was a member of a criminal organization and had collected 500 euros per towing trip was an aggravating factor. The sentence - two years unconditional imprisonment - is already final.