Drivers in 15-mile motorway jam as migrant checks are tightened at border

Drivers are facing 15-mile tailbacks after a crackdown on people smuggling on a Hungarian motorway leading to the Austrian border. Tougher controls have been introduced by Austrian authorities after 71 refugees were found dead in an abandoned lorry last week. The M1 motorway, and a nearby main road, were jammed after new checks on vehicles that could be carrying illegal migrants were introduced. Officials said 200 asylum seekers and five suspected people traffickers had already been found during the operation.

It is about ensuring that people are safe, that they are not dying, on the one hand, and about traffic security, on the other

Konrad Kogler, Austrian interior ministry official

Hungarian police have arrested five people over the deaths in the refrigerated lorry, which had been parked for about 24 hours before officers arrived and found the partially decomposed remains. They said 59 of those who suffocated in the cramped conditions were men, eight were women and four were children, including one baby girl. Meanwhile, the EU has called an emergency meeting of European leaders in Brussels in two weeks’ time to address the growing migration crisis. It comes after home secretary Theresa May released a joint statement with her counterparts from Paris and Berlin calling for urgent talks.

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