VINENA: Austrian mountain rescuers have saved a Syrian teen found injured and suffering from severe hypothermia, they said Tuesday, as new smuggling routes are being used to avoid stepped-up border controls in central Europe.
Central European countries stepped up border controls last year as the numbers of migrants and asylum seekers crossing into the EU has risen. This has led to new smuggling routes to be used.
Rescuers on Sunday airlifted the 14-year-old found “severely hypothermic and barely reactive” at 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) altitude in “partly snowy, steep, wet and densely wooded terrain.”
A hiker had heard the calls for help of the boy — who complained of “severe pain” — and called the rescue services, they said in a statement.
Authorities are still investigating how the boy, described as being illegally in the country, ended up on the mountains near the Slovenian border.
Earlier this winter, a refugee family was rescued in the same area in the southern province of Carinthia after getting lost in the mountains on a suspected new smuggling route, according to police, cited by the Krone tabloid.
Asylum applications in the EU surged to over one million last year, a seven-year high, with Syrians then Afghans remaining the top groups seeking protection, according to the bloc’s asylum agency.
Germany received the biggest number of asylum applications in 2023 — around 29 percent of the total.
Syria teen rescued in Austria mountains as new smuggling routes used
https://arab.news/rbrpr
Syria teen rescued in Austria mountains as new smuggling routes used
- Rescuers on Sunday airlifted the 14-year-old found “severely hypothermic and barely reactive” at 1,200 meters
- A hiker had heard the calls for help of the boy — who complained of “severe pain” — and called the rescue services
Protesters try to attack driver after truck speeds through anti-Iran demonstration in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with marchers demonstrating in support of the Iranian people, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver.
The U-Haul truck, with its side mirrors shattered, was stopped several blocks away and surrounded by police cars. ABC7 news helicopter footage showed officers keeping the crowd at bay as demonstrators swarmed the truck, throwing punches at the driver and thrusting flagpoles through the driver’s side window.
The police department confirmed its officers were on the scene but didn’t immediately say if anyone was arrested.
Two people were evaluated by paramedics and both declined treatment, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
Several hundred people had gathered Sunday afternoon in the Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian theocracy. The LA police department eventually issued a dispersal order, and by 5 p.m. only about a hundred protesters were still at the scene, ABC7 reported.
Activists say a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran has killed more than 530 people. Protesters flooded the streets in Iran’s capital of Tehran and its second-largest city again Sunday.
