An 18-year-old Syrian was granted asylum in Austria by the country’s asylum authority despite the migrant being on trial for selling hard drugs to young girls at the time of the decision.
The Syrian, along with two other Syrian asylum seekers, one being his twin brother, were on trial for selling meth to young girls in the city of Linz when the 18-year-old had his asylum claim approved, Kronen Zeitung reports.
The three Syrians are said to have used their apartment as a base to sell at least 750 grams of meth to various customers including underage girls, some of whom paid for the drugs with sex. Some of the girls were as young as 14 years old.
The judge in the case gave the Syrian a three-year sentence while his twin brother received three and a half years and a further eleven months in connection with a prior conviction. The remaining Syrian, a 17-year-old, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
“I understand your situation. But there are a very, very large group of refugees who work and study German diligently,” the judge told the trio.
Young migrants have become increasingly involved in the drug trade in Austria with Nigerians in particular accounting for many street dealers in the Austrian capital of Vienna.
Austrian police have also managed to bust several migrant drug rings since the height of the 2015 migrant crisis including one in 2016 worth €300,000.
In neighbouring Germany, police have grown more and more concerned that migrants are taking over the drug trade in certain areas. In the northern German region of Schleswig-Holstein police reported last year that many of the migrants were using violence to edge out competitors and rival gangs.
Drug dealing has also been linked to radical Islamic extremism with some claiming that radical Islamic Salafists in cities like Berlin have been working with drug dealers.
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