How Facebook Idiots Reacted to Yesterday's Austrian Refugee Death Tragedy

Following the grim finding of more than 20 decomposing refugees in a refrigeration truck, morons from all over Austria have taken to Facebook to voice their opinion.

av Hanna Herbst

28.8.15

The Austrian Freedom Party's youth wing calling for tighter border control. All screenshots, originally written in German, have been recreated in English.

This article originally appeared on VICE Alps

Yesterday, the decomposing bodies of dead refugees were discovered in a car park on Austria's A4 highway, just east of Vienna. Currently, there are no exact figures as to how many people are dead but estimates range from 20 to 50. According to reports, the truck had been abandoned at a lay-by for at least a day; its driver having fled the scene.

Burgenland police chief Hans Peter Doskozil told a press conference that police noticed a stench of death when approaching the refrigeration vehicle. A fact that suggests the refugees may have been dead for some time.

Annons

Austria's Interior Minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, said that it was a "dark day" that yet again underlined the need for EU policies to combat human traffickers. Unfortunately, she seemed to avoid the fact that these traffickers are almost the only way for refugees to gain entry to Europe. This trafficking is, in fact, little more than a synonym for a failed asylum policy.

In July alone, a record 107,500 refugees are said to have entered Europe, the bulk of whom are fleeing political unrest and war in Syria.

WATCH: 'Europe or Die'

Aside from those understandably appalled by the tragedy, social media is also awash with the usual selfish types that are only really appalled by the fact that more people weren't found in the back of the truck.

We've compiled some of the more worrying reactions we found on Facebook.

Opinion One: "Close the borders, then things like this can't happen."

Europe's borders are already so closed that people have to attempt to crawl under barbed wire fences and cross the Mediterranean in rafts to get here, all of which is 100 percent illegal. But according to many Facebook geniuses, the borders aren't well-protected enough. People seem to think that if we build walls high enough, then nobody can come in, which means they can't die on the side of the highway or suffer in refugee camps. That's true, but what will happen to these people if they have to stay in Syria?

Opinion Two: "Do-gooders are to blame."

The strangest part of this whole "borders can save lives" argument is of course, "The people who want open borders are the problem and are implicit in the death of these refugees." Wrong. The real problem is that these people have no other way of getting into Europe. Or maybe that they have to deal with human traffickers? The fact that the Austrian government has stopped processing asylum applications is the issue.

Annons

Opinion Three: "It's the refugees' own fault."

Their own fault? Really? Special shout out goes to the guy who implied that the 20-50 refugees couldn't have suffocated because "no truck is completely airtight".