188 people smugglers arrested in Croatia in 2022: Number of illegal migrants trying to reach EU also growing

At the beginning of the migrant crisis, the route was mainly used by residents of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, while in recent years people from Pakistan, Senegal, Ethiopia, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Algeria also want to reach Europe...

With the arrival of spring and warmer days, migrant routes along Croatia are being activated, and the most active in recent days is the one leading from neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Recommended

Mostly from the direction of Velika Kladusa or Bihac, migrants are trying to reach Slovenia, and then Austria, Germany, France and other countries in Central and Northern Europe, via Croatia's Karlovac district.

All these migrant routes are well known to the Croatian police in Karlovac, Lika, and Primorje-Gorski Kotar districts, as well as those in other parts of Croatia.

Citizens report to the police about groups of people getting on the move at night, and that migrant routes, even those on rivers, are now active again is unfortunately shown by more and more news about migrants drowning. A few days ago, two migrants, a Senegalese and a Gambian, drowned in the Mreznica, one in the area of ​​the town of Ogulin in Donje Dubrave, the other in Svojic in the municipality of Barilovic.

Migrants have been using both routes for years. The only difference is where they are coming from. At the beginning of the migrant crisis, the route was mainly used by residents of Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, while in recent years people from Pakistan, Senegal, Ethiopia, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Algeria also want to reach Europe...

In the last case, the police found a group of eight migrants in the area of ​​Svojici, one of whom was in a serious health condition, so he received medical help. They were taken to the police, where it was determined which countries they came from and that they had entered Croatia illegally.

The police were also told about two of their companions who drowned in the Mreznica, who's bodies were found after a search. Apart from such cases, when a whole group of migrants is located when they report the drowning of one of them, the police often find only the bodies of unknown persons in the rivers. The last such case happened a few days ago in the Kupa in the Vrbovsko area.

Since the beginning of the year, the Karlovac police found the body of an unknown person in the Korana near Slunj, and several more drownings were recorded in the Mreznica and the Kupa near Vrbovsko.

"During the first three months of this year, we recorded 3,433 cases of illegal border crossings, which is an increase of five percent compared to the same period earlier when we recorded 3,267 illegal crossings," the Ministry of the Interior announced, Vecernji List writes.

Data that will be collected by the end of April could show that there has been an increase in this number. Given the data on drowned migrants since the beginning of the year, that number could also increase.

"During 2021, we recorded 15 deaths of illegal migrants, and the most common cause of death was drowning and traffic accidents. As for human trafficking, the police arrested and prosecuted 188 smugglers in the first three months of this year, an increase of 23 percent over the same period last year, given that 146 smugglers had been arrested and prosecuted then," said the Croatian MUP.

(Telegraf.rs)