North Macedonia Arrests Border Officer for Alleged Bribe-Taking

North Macedonia's deputy Interior Minister, Nazim Bushi told media that one officer at the Blace border crossing with Kosovo has been arrested after Albania's Klan TV published video footage that it claims shows how North Macedonian border officials there take bribes.

"Right after receiving the information, the [police] internal control [department] arrested him," Bushi told North Macedonia's TV21 on Wednesday, without revealing the identity of the arrested officer.

Klan TV published the covertly-taped video footage on Tuesday evening. It claimed that the footage showed a border official taking bribes, allegedly a total of 120 euros, in order to let six Albanian citizens cross the border without any checks.

The video footage appears to show the official saying that the "fee" of 20 euros per person was the "minimum" they had to pay.

In its official response on Wednesday, North Macedonia's police said that "the internal control sector, in coordination with the prosecution in charge, is working on shedding light on this case and sanctioning those involved… We will give the public more information after we complete the case."

Klan TV said in its report on Tuesday that it went to film the alleged bribe-taking at the border crossing after receiving complaints from an unnamed local Albanian businessman who deals with transporting vehicles and people through the border and who said that he was forced to pay bribes there regularly.

"We have many problems with North Macedonia's border police. This is more than abribery, as we are giving them from 500 to 700 euros per vehicle every day. The tariff per passenger was 50 euros, but now it was reduced to a 20 euro bribe. I transport between 20 and 30 passengers and for each of them they...