by Our Foreign Desk

A FIFTH man has been arrested in connection with the deaths of the 71 men, women and children suffocated to death in the back of a lorry in Austria, Hungarian police revealed yesterday.

The news came as the refugee crisis reached new heights, with the British, French and German interior ministers calling for an emergency EU summit to thrash out common policies.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he would “invite” the European Commission — the unelected cabal which wields executive power in the EU — “to examine a targeted amendment to the Schengen code” permitting free movement across European borders.

The theory is that more checkpoints would reduce the risk of tragedies, but the commission has said it sees no need to act and amendments would do little to address the growing number of people fleeing genocide and war in the Middle East and Africa.

Following a string of nasty incidents where neonazi groups have tried to attack asylum-seekers in Germany, thousands marched through central Dresden on Saturday to welcome victims of persecution.

The crowd followed a banner reading: “Prevent the pogroms of tomorrow today” and chanted: “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here.” The demonstration was called by the Anti-Nazi Alliance.

“Hating refugees who live here because they can no longer live at home, because they have been through a war — that shouldn’t happen in a rich country,” teacher Eva Mendl told reporters.

Pope Francis called on European countries yesterday to co-operate to stop crimes against refugees, which “offend the entire human family.”