--- description: The refugees were rescued from the back of a van whose doors had been welded shut, authorities in Austria said title: 24 Refugees Rescued From Van With Welded Doors in Vienna image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd5507c4578854f/698861f9428a9e35d0cceebb/austrian-chancellor-werner-faymann-migration.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 24 Refugees Rescued From Van With Welded Doors in Vienna by [Alastair Jamieson / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Alastair Jamieson / NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 3:40 PM CUT  Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann (R) talks next to Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner during an extraordinary session of the parliament on migration policy in Vienna on Sept. 1, 2015. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann (R) talks next to Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner during an extraordinary session of the parliament on migration policy in Vienna on Sept. 1, 2015.Heinz-Peter Bader—Reuters by [Alastair Jamieson / NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## Alastair Jamieson / NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Sep 2, 2015 3:40 PM CUT Two dozen young refugees were rescued from the back of a van whose doors had been welded shut, authorities in Austria said Wednesday. The migrants, who are aged from 16 to 20 and are mostly Afghan nationals, were found inside the vehicle after it was stopped by police in Vienna on Tuesday, the country’s [interior ministry said in a statement](http://www.bmi.gv.at/cms/bmi/%5Fnews/bmi.aspx?id=48505A6E554E2F5269506B3D&page=0&view=1 "undefined"). They were in “a life-threatening situation,” the ministry said, adding that the 30-year-old Romanian driver tried to flee but was later caught by a police sniffer dog. It comes less than one week [after 71 bodies were found in an abandoned truck on](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/71-dead-refugees-found-truck-austria-highway-officials-n417536 "undefined")… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/24-refugees-rescued-van-doors-welded-shut-vienna-n420121?cid=par-time-article%5F20150902 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/"},"headline":"24 Refugees Rescued From Van With Welded Doors in Vienna","datePublished":"2015-09-02T15:40:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:38:36.520Z","description":"The majority of the refugees were teenagers","url":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/","keywords":["europe","Austria","refugee","migrants"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd5507c4578854f/698861f9428a9e35d0cceebb/austrian-chancellor-werner-faymann-migration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alastair Jamieson / NBC News"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9cd5507c4578854f/698861f9428a9e35d0cceebb/austrian-chancellor-werner-faymann-migration.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Austrian Chancellor Faymann migration vienna","caption":"Austrian Chancellor Faymann migration vienna","creditText":"Heinz-Peter Bader—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/","name":"24 Refugees Rescued From Van With Welded Doors in Vienna"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Migrant Crisis","description":"Germany and France are calling for a unified EU response to the growing refugee crisis in Europe","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Um65XvJC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-08-25T14:41:02.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Um65XvJC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4020140/refugee-crisis-europe-austria/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```