German police say they have arrested a 15-year-old Syrian who was behind the steering wheel of a van with 27 smuggled people on board. The number of irregular border crossing attempts into Germany from Poland has been on the rise this year.
German federal police discovered 27 mostly Syrian migrants in the cargo area of a Mercedes van around 11 pm on Monday (September 18), shortly after the vehicle had entered the eastern German state of Saxony from Poland.
According to the corresponding press release published the next day, the driver was a missing 15-year-old Syrian who had previously lived in a children's and youth facility for almost two years in the German state of Thuringia. He had run away in August and had been wanted ever since, federal police said.
The teenager, who told police officers he did not have a driver's license and had only learned to drive a few days ago, was arrested. A judge on Tuesday ordered him to be held in custody, news agency dpa reported.
According to police, 23 of the discovered people had Syrian citizenship and four were Yemeni. Monday's incident was the first time federal police apprehended a minor driving a van carrying smuggled migrants, a police spokesperson told InfoMigrants.
Federal police say they stopped the van, which had a Swedish license plate, in part because shortly before, they had stopped a passenger vehicle driving on the same road with two Syrian adults living in eastern Germany inside. According to police, the Syrians, aged 25 and 27, claimed they drove to Poland to refuel. They were arrested as well, the spokesman said, for being suspected of being connected to the smuggling.
Separately, another 32 nationals from Syria were apprehended Monday some 30 kilometers further south, according to the same press release by federal police.
Uptick in numbers crossing via Belarus
The number of attempted irregular border crossings into Germany from Poland has been on the rise this year, coinciding with growing numbers of attempted irregular border crossings into Poland from Belarus.
According to information by federal police, close to 15,000 refugees and migrants were detected at the 460-kilometer long border between Poland and Germany in the first seven months of this year. This is 2.5 times as many unauthorized border crossings as in the same period last year.
About two thirds of the persons who entered Germany via Poland are said to have previously entered the European Union via Belarus. Most of them come from Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan -- the top three countries of origin of asylum seekers in Germany.
Poland and other EU countries blame the surge of arrivals on Belarussian ruler Alexander Lukashenko and Russia, saying they orchestrate the influx in an attempt to destabilize the European Union. Already in 2021, tens of thousands of migrants tried to enter Poland and other countries on the EU's external border via the so-called Belarus route.
Last week, German police intercepted 320 migrants trying to cross into Germany from Poland and arrested 14 smugglers. Some EU states say extended controls and randomized checks at their land borders are needed, as migration becomes increasingly politicized within the bloc.
Late last month, the eastern German state of Saxony announced plans to deploy more police officers at its border with the Czech Republic and Poland in an attempt to put a stop to the increasing number of smuggled migrants. And in late May, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced a widening of checks at and near the German-Polish border.
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with dpa