A banned substance bust in Graz has led to the arrest of 30 migrants, 14 of whom are Nigerians.
14 Nigerians have been arrested in Europe over peddling of banned substances (Pictured)
Express UK reports that police in Austria have arrested 31 men as part of a “zero-tolerance” crack-down on banned substances culture but only one of the men is an Austrian citizen.
14 Nigerians have been arrested in Europe over peddling of banned substances (Pictured)
Fourteen of the men are from Nigeria, 12 are from Afghanistan, three are from Algeria, one is from Pakistan and one was Austrian.
Officers caught 15 of the men at the weekend after suspecting them of dealing banned substances on the streets of Graz.
READ ALSO: Panic as thousands of unguarded Nigerian children land Italy
14 Nigerians arrested in Austria for peddling banned substances
Police said they also confiscated 2,500 euros of drug money when they seized the suspected criminals.
Austria’s Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka is focusing on developing a ‘Safe Austria’ scheme and said: "In the field of drug-related crime, I believe that a clear zero-tolerance strategy will be developed."
14 Nigerians arrested for peddling banned substances in Austria
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry warned: “If an asylum seeker is convicted under criminal law, this can lead to them losing their asylum status or being denied asylum.
The ministry is also looking to speed up the process of deportation for such cases.”
14 Nigerians arrested for peddling banned substances in Austria
The criminal complaints against migrants in Austria has soared over the past few years, with interior ministry figures showing that a staggering 42,010 property-related crimes were alleged to have been committed by migrants in 2015.
14 Nigerians arrested for peddling banned substances in Austria
A staggering 23,951 of the charges are alleged to be bodily harm caused by the migrants.'
In Vienna alone, 960 criminal complaints were made against Afghanis in the city between January and August last year, up from 730 for the whole of 2015.
But Christoph Riedl, an asylum expert for the Diakonie charity, pointed out that the figures could have been influenced by more people reporting crimes rather than more migrants actually committing crimes.
He said: “Just because the number of criminal charges has risen, this doesn’t automatically mean that asylum seekers are committing more crimes.
14 Nigerians arrested for peddling banned substances in Austria
“These are figures for criminal complaints and not per capita statistics.”
He added: “In order to interpret these figures properly, we need to look at the statistics for the number of convictions.”
Earlier in 2016, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari warned that Nigerians' reputation for crime has made them unwelcome in Europe.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Buhari warned his fellow citizens to stop trying to make asylum claims in Britain, saying that their reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be "accepted" abroad.
Buhari said those who had joined the migrant exodus to Europe were doing so purely for economic reasons rather than because they were in danger.
He added that because of the number of Nigerians imprisoned for law-breaking in Britain and elsewhere, they were also unlikely to get much sympathy.
