Four people are standing trial in Austria this week on charges of smuggling people onto planes bound for the UK and the US.
It is believed the defendants smuggled 25 people this way when they were in the employ of British company G4S which had been hired to conduct additional security checks at Vienna International Airport.
The prosecution claims the four – who come from Austria, Poland and Sri Lanka – are part of a wider gang of criminal smugglers.
The alleged scheme was carried out by getting known individuals with valid flight tickets to go through security. The tickets were then given to the migrants who had been slipped into the area and were waiting in the airport toilets.
Each person is believed to have been charged €9,000.
“The last passport control at the gate is also carried out by the private security service for our airline,” said Sandra Bijelic of Austrian Airlines last year when the scheme was uncovered.
Since then the airport has introduced new biometric checks to access the security area.
An investigation was triggered after one of the smuggled migrants was refused entry by US authorities.
A G4S spokesperson confirmed last year that an employee responsible for checking visa documentation at the airport on a contract with Austrian Airlines was dismissed in March following his arrest.
