Austria to summon Hungarian envoy over human traffickers' release

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) - The Austrian Foreign Ministry announced Monday it will summon Hungary's ambassador in Vienna.

The diplomatic spat between the two countries was triggered by the early release of convicted traffickers in Hungary.

"We want full clarification because we think this is a completely wrong signal," Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg of the conservative OVP said Monday in Brussels.

He added that Vienna would "also bring the Hungarian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry today to do this." Schallenberg said he had already spoken with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto.

In recent days, there have been "disturbing" media reports that Hungary wants to release hundreds of convicted people smugglers, Schallenberg said.

Budapest's "apparent argument" that having foreigners in prisons is too expensive is at odds with Hungary's "seemingly clear line" on people smuggling in the past, the foreign minister added.

Under a decree issued by Viktor Orban's Hungarian government at the end of the previous month, jailed traffickers from abroad will be released if they leave Hungary within 72 hours.

Hungarian criminal law in itself provides for long prison sentences of two to 20 years for people smuggling. Hungarian Chancellery Minister Gergely Gulyas justified the move by saying that imprisoning foreign criminals would be too expensive.​​​​​​​