Austrian police on Thursday discovered the badly decomposing bodies of at least 20 — and possibly up to 50 — migrants piled in a truck parked on the shoulder of the main highway from Budapest to Vienna.
The shocking finding came as Austria hosted a summit in Vienna on Europe’s refugee crisis for Western Balkan nations, which have been overwhelmed this year by the tens of thousands of migrants trying to get into Europe via their territory.
Police ordered reporters at the scene 25 miles (40 kilometers) southeast of Vienna to move away from the vehicle, a white refrigeration truck with images of food items on it.
The state of the bodies in the hot summer day made establishing their identities and even the exact number of dead migrants difficult, but the total number could rise to 50, said Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of Burgenland police.
The truck was apparently abandoned Wednesday and its back door was left open, Doskozil said. It had Hungarian license plates but writing on the side and back of it was in Slovak. The state of the bodies suggested the migrants could have been dead for several days.
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-leitner condemned the traffickers. “Human smugglers are criminals,” she said in a statement. “Those who still think that they are gentle helpers of refugees are beyond saving.”