Nearly 100 migrants including 36 Bangladeshis held in Bosnia

Nearly 100 migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan were prevented from illegally crossing Bosnia’s border with European Union member Croatia, police said on Thursday.

In operations carried out on Wednesday two groups of people were intercepted while attempting to illegally cross the frontier near Bistrica, in northern Bosnia, border police said in a statement on Thursday, reports AFP.

One comprised 40 Pakistani and 23 Bangladeshi nationals, it said.

Separately, another 33 migrants — 18 Afghans, 13 Bangladeshis and two Pakistani nationals — were held in the same area, Sarajevo Times and First Balkan Media reported, citing the statement.

Police seized two boats that migrants were to use to cross the Sava river, and identified two suspected smugglers.

Authorities said the Banja Luka Field Centre of the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs had been informed of the incidents and that legal proceedings were underway.

Bosnia lies along the so-called Balkan route that undocumented migrants regularly use to reach the EU.

More than 4,900 illegal border crossings were registered on the Balkan route during the first seven months of the year, according to EU’s border agency Frontex.

It was 26 percent less compared with the same period last year, Frontex figures show.