The body of this twelfth migrant, “who died when the boat overturned on the Drina, was found today in the town of Tegare, near Bratunac”, in Bosnia, the Bosnian-Serb news agency confirmed on Saturday, the acting director of the Bosnian Serb Civil Protection Service Boris Trninic. “The frame was found by the residents,” he added.
Rescuers recovered 10 bodies on Thursday, including those of a 9-month-old girl and her mother, before an eleventh was identified on Friday. According to Serbian police, the boat capsized near Ljubovija in Serbia, transit countries on the “Balkan route” which migrants use to reach the European Union. After the accident, the police and firemen found 18 survivors, including 3 children who had managed to reach the shores.
Fewer arrivals
Almost 100,000 migrants, including 20,000 unaccompanied minors, traveled the “Balkan Route” in 2023, up from 144,000 in 2022, according to the European border agency Frontex. Several dozen migrants have died in recent years trying to cross the Drina. More than a million migrants from Asian and African countries have crossed into Serbia since 2015, many of them in 2015 during the great wave of refugees from the Middle East, according to the Serbian government.
Local police recorded nearly 10,400 illegal entries into the country from January to June 2024, down nearly 70 percent from the same period last year. Among them were Syrian, Afghan, Turkish, Moroccan and Pakistani nationals.