Increased Migrant Pressure from Bulgaria, Macedonia on Serbia

In the last few days, there has been an increase in the migrant pressure from Bulgaria and Macedonia towards Serbia, announced the spokesperson of the Serbian Defence Ministry.

According to him, "authorities in Belgrade have registered an increase in the attempts for illegal crossing of migrants to the territory of Serbia".

The Defence Ministry reminded that since the deployment of joint military-police units to patrol the borders with Macedonia and Bulgaria in the summer of 2016, over 20,000 migrants have been prevented from entering the country. In the same period, 132 traffickers were detained.

There are Bulgarian citizens among the detainees but most of the criminals are Serbian citizens.

With the warming up of the weather, attempts to cross the border become more frequent but Serbian forces are capable of dealing with this challenge, added the Defence Ministry.