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.
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Syria teen rescued in Austria mountains as new smuggling routes used
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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
Ukrainians defy cold, Russian strikes at sub-zero street party
KYIV: Music blasts from speakers and lights strobe in the dark as revellers, clad in puffer jackets and bobble hats, brave Kyiv’s freezing cold at an outdoor party despite blackouts triggered by Russian strikes.
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
Moscow has been pummelling Ukraine’s power grid with drones and missiles, plunging millions into darkness and cold as temperatures dip as low as -20C.
“People are tired of sitting without power, feeling sad... It’s a psychological burden on everyone’s mental health,” Olena Shvydka, who threw the street party with the support of her neighbors, told AFP.
“Now we’re letting off some steam, so to speak.”
Across the country, around 58,000 workers were racing to restore power, with additional crews deployed to the capital where, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the situation was “extremely tough.”
A massive Russian strike on Kyiv cut off heating to half the city’s apartment buildings earlier this month.
The ongoing hours-long power outages are the worst yet of the war, which will hit the four-year mark next month.
In Shvydka’s building, equipped with a generator, heating is “almost always” there but the blackouts have been dragging on for hours.
“We didn’t have electricity for 18 hours two days ago, then for 17 hours three days ago,” she said. This was when the idea for the street party was born.
- ‘Civilized resistance’ -
“In our community chat, we decided to do something to support the general spirit of our residential complex,” Yevgeniy, Shvydka’s neighbor, told AFP.
“Despite the very difficult situation, people want to hold on and celebrate. And they are waiting for victory no matter what,” said Yevgeniy, a retired military officer who did not give his full name.
When neighbors started setting up generators, mixers and lights, “the temperature was about -10C. Now it’s probably -15C or more,” Shvydka said.
Clutching hot drinks in paper cups, warming around braziers or bopping to the thudding music, the crowd was undeterred, refusing to cave in despite the ongoing Russian invasion.
“What the Russians are trying to do to us is instil fear, anxiety, and hatred,” Olga Pankratova, a mother of three and a former army officer, told AFP.
“These kinds of gatherings provide some kind of civilized resistance to the force that is being directed at us — rockets, explosions, flashes. It unites us,” Pankratova said.
The loudspeakers started blasting Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life.”
Hands in the air, the revellers belted out the rock anthem’s lyrics.
“It is impossible to defeat these people,” Yevgeniy said, looking around the party.
“The situation is very difficult — but the people are invincible.”
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