Croatia has arrested more human traffickers and fewer illegal migrants in 2024 compared to last year, the government said Wednesday, citing increased border monitoring.
EU-member Croatia is a major transit country for migrants, including people fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, seeking to enter the European Union via the so-called “Balkan Route”.
Experts said the increase in arrests could also be down to increased use of smuggling rings by migrants, as opposed to those trying to cross the border on their own.
The interior ministry said Wednesday it had arrested 1,430 people for human trafficking so far this year — up nearly 40 percent on the same period in 2023.
It also told AFP that 21,909 illegal migrants — mostly from Syria, Turkey and Afghanistan — had been arrested, a 60-percent drop.
Croatia, which joined Europe’s passport-free Schengen Area at the start of 2023, has significantly strengthened surveillance of its border in recent years.
The Balkan country borders non-EU members Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro and is one of the first possible entry routes into the EU for migrants travelling from the Middle East, Turkey and Africa overland.
Nearly 100,000 Europe-bound migrants fleeing war or poverty took the Balkan route last year to enter the bloc, according to the EU’s border agency Frontex.
More than 90 percent of illegal migrants enter Croatia from neighbouring Bosnia, the interior ministry said, adding that the “pressure will continue at a similar pace.”
It did not disclose the nationality of those detained for people smuggling, but officials said earlier this year that 80 percent were foreign nationals — mostly from Bosnia, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia.
Armed smuggling gangs in Bosnia are typically run by Afghan migrants, Zarko Laketa, the head of the nation’s service that oversees migration issues said recently.
Earlier this week police in southern Serbia arrested two suspected traffickers and found the body of a dead migrant after a vehicle chase.
Other migrants that were in the vehicle fled, prosecutors said, without providing further details.
In August, 12 migrants died when their boat capsized as they tried to cross a river between Bosnia and Serbia.
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