2024-08-23 22:10:31
A baby is among at least 10 people who drowned after a boat carrying migrants capsized while crossing the Drina River from Serbia to Bosnia, officials from both countries said, according to the Associated Press.
Serbian police received a call around 5:00 a.m. from their Bosnian colleagues and a citizen who reported the incident, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.
He said 18 migrants, including three children, had managed to cross into Bosnia, out of 25 people believed to have been on the boat. He later put the death toll at 10, suggesting there may have been more people in the boat.
“The lifeless body of a baby, who is about nine months old, was discovered,” Dacic announced. “The baby was with its mother, whose body was pulled from the river earlier today,” he added.
“Police and rescuers are continuing the search of the Drina River and the surrounding area,” Dacic also said in a message.
Of the 18 migrants who managed to reach the coast, 16 are from Syria, and two – from Egypt, he specified. Ten of them are minors, BTA reported.
The representative of the Bosnian civil protection service, Boris Tarninic, said earlier that there were about 30 people in the boat, 15 of whom reached the shore.
Migrants who use the so-called Balkan overland route to reach Western Europe come to Serbia from Bulgaria or North Macedonia before continuing on to Hungary, Croatia or Bosnia, the AP noted.
To reach wealthy European countries, people fleeing war and poverty often turn to traffickers who bring them across borders illegally.