Romanian border police officers have caught two groups of Iraqi citizens who were trying to cross the border between Romania and Hungary illegally in the last week. All of the 19 people caught were asylum seekers in Romania.

On Monday evening, at around 23:00, the police officers noticed 13 people of Asian origins (nine children and four adults) who were getting out of taxis near the border with Hungary. They stopped the cars and asked the identification documents of the three drivers, who were Romanians. Then, they also identified the people who got out of the taxis and discovered that they were Iraqi citizens, asylum seekers in Romania.

While trying to figure out whom those people were, the police officers noticed another car, registered in Austria, which was parked nearby. There were three individuals in this car, who were later identified as being Shaker G., an Iraqi citizen residing in Austria, and Rebaz A. and Hawree O., holders of travel documents issued by the Austrian and Italian authorities, who legally entered the country with their personal documents, according to a statement from the Romanian Border Police.

As they had some suspicions about why these people were in that area, the police officers took them to the station for further checks. There, they found out that the 13 asylum seekers were trying to cross the border illegally to get to a state in the Schengen area, and Shaker G, Rebaz A. and Hawree O. were there to help them.

The border police officers started an investigation in this case, for attempted illegal border crossing and guiding.

On Sunday evening, another group of six Iraqi asylum seekers in Romania were caught at the Nadlac border crossing point trying to leave the country hidden in a truck that was carrying citrus fruits. A Turkish citizen drove the truck. The border policemen saw that the truck's seal had been tampered with and asked the driver to open the truck's trailer, where they found six men aged between 15 and 30.

Group of 39 migrants found in forest in northern Romania

Border Police: 29 Syrian migrants caught at the Romanian-Serbian border

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Politiadefrontiera.ro)