A boat carrying migrants has capsized on the Drina River, which separates Serbia and Bosnia, resulting in the deaths of nine migrants.
Meanwhile, 18 others, including three children, were rescued by the Bosnian emergency officials.
Vlada Rankic, the leader of the civil defence rescue team, told reporters that rescuers were also searching for a mother and a baby.
“Unfortunately, we don’t think there will be survivors,” he added.
However, teams from both countries are searching for several people, who were believed to have drowned during the journey.
It was learnt that the search and rescue operations have been challenging due to the river’s width, which reaches up to 200 meters in some areas, making it difficult to locate those still missing.
In a separate incident, Serbian officials reported that police encountered a group of migrants, mostly from Morocco, near the border town of Ljubovija.
Serbia and Bosnia are key transit countries for migrants entering the Europe through the Western Balkans route.
Many migrants use smugglers to enter Serbia from Bulgaria and North Macedonia and then attempt to cross into European Union member, Hungary and Croatia.
According to Frontex, the EU’s border police organization, this route surpassed the Central Mediterranean route through Italy in irregular border crossings in September 2023, with many migrants entering through Bulgaria.
Since the 2015 refugee crisis, over a million people from Asia and Africa have entered Serbia. Government data shows that recent migrants attempting to cross into Serbia came mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Pakistan.
However, the number of migrants transiting through Serbia has decreased significantly, with a 70% drop in illegal entries recorded by Serbian police in the first half of 2024.
This decrease is attributed to increased cooperation with Austrian police and Frontex.
