Sarajevo(Bosnia and Herzegovina): At least nine people died after a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Drina River separating Serbia and Bosnia on Thursday, officials said, as a search for others continued.
Several people are thought to be missing after the boat carrying around two dozen migrants turned over near the border town of Ljubovija in Serbia early on Thursday, Serbian police said.
"The search and rescue team and divers found the bodies of nine migrants whose boat capsized this morning," said Bosnia's civil protection group, which was overseeing the rescue operations. "Other people are still missing," they added without providing a figure.
Bosnian authorities told that they could not disclose the nationalities of the victims for the time being. Serbia and Bosnia are among the main transit countries on the so-called "Balkan route" on which migrants attempt to reach the European Union.
Early Thursday, Serbian border police were informed by the "Bosnian border authorities, as well as by a local resident, that during the night, a boat carrying irregular migrants capsized on the Drina River while attempting to cross from Serbia", Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in a statement.
After the incident, police found 18 people on the riverbank, including three children, who managed to reach the shore, while rescuers and police scoured the area for the missing.
More than a million people from Asia and Africa have crossed Serbia since the refugee crisis of 2015, according to the Serbian government. The majority trying to cross in recent months come from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan, according to government data.
The number of migrants transiting through Serbia has dropped significantly over the years, and this year, police recorded 10,389 illegal entries in the first half of 2024, which is nearly 70 per cent less than last year.
Serbian officials have attributed the drop to tighter cooperation with Austrian police and with Frontex, the EU's border management agency.
Many migrants use smugglers to enter Serbia from Bulgaria and North Macedonia and then try to enter EU members Hungary or Croatia.
