A teenager from Syria where he had been lost at an altitude of 1,200 meters while trying to reach Austria via Slovenia he was rescued in a very difficult situation, as new migration routes appear in the face of increased controls in the EU.

“A 61-year-old man was walking” on Sunday “when he heard calls for help coming from the forest,” rescue services said in a statement today. “He found a young wounded Syrian, who was unable to continue on his way.”

The 14-year-old was “in a state of severe hypothermia and barely conscious”.

Due to the partially snow-covered, steep, wet and densely wooded terrain, the helicopter could only land about a kilometer away and rescuers lowered the young man to an open area before he was taken to hospital.

More than one million asylum applications in the European Union, mostly from Syrians and Afghans, were lodged in 2023, the highest number in seven years, according to the European Asylum Service.

Germany is first in asylum applications but, at its southern border, Austria has strengthened controls resulting in the number of asylum applications falling by 48% from 2022 to 2023 (below 59,000) in contrast to the rest of the Europe. Slovenia, in the same period, had almost double the number.

New routes have therefore been gradually created to avoid the fences, with migrants and refugees passing through isolated mountain passes in the north of the country to reach Austria, according to Slovenian police.

This winter, a refugee family was rescued in the same zone in the southern region of Carinthia after becoming disoriented in the mountains, according to police.