Ten migrants drown in river on Serbia-Bosnia border

Serbian police searching a bank of the Drina River, near the town of Ljubovija in Serbia

At least 10 migrants - including a mother and her baby girl - have drowned after their boat capsized while trying to cross the Drina River, which separates Serbia and Bosnia, Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.

Authorities said at least 18 other migrants, including three children, arrived safely on the Bosnian side of the border on Thursday. It is unclear how many people may be missing.

Bad weather halted search efforts, with officials in both countries now planning to resume the operation on Friday morning. Parts of the river are up to 200m (656ft) wide.

Local media also reported a search was under way for a smuggler who took the migrants across the river.

Bosnia's border police confirmed the incident took place on Thursday morning, without providing any further details.

Serbian officials also confirmed that an incident had taken place near the border town of Ljubovija, with police adding that the majority of the migrants were people from Morocco.

Serbian Interior Minister Dacic later said the "lifeless body of a baby, approximately nine months old" was discovered by members of the internal affairs ministry. "Unfortunately, this baby is the tenth victim of the boat capsizing", he said in quotes cited by AFP news agency.

The baby "was with its mother, whose body was recovered from the river earlier", the ministry said.

Vladan Rankic, the head of Bosnia's water rescue team, said on Thursday a search and rescue operation had to be halted because of bad weather.

"So far we have found 10 drowned people. We do not know the exact number of people we are looking for, but the search will continue tomorrow in the early hours of the morning," he told the Association Press Television News.

Serbia and Bosnia are among the main transit countries on the route through the Western Balkans into the European Union.

In September 2023, according to the EU's border police organisation Frontex, the route overtook the Central Mediterranean route through Italy in numbers of irregular border crossings, with many migrants crossing through Bulgaria.

The Serbian government says over a million people from Asia and Africa have crossed into the country since the refugee crisis of 2015. More than one million migrants entered Europe that year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

According to government data, the majority attempting to cross into Serbia in recent months came from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan.

But the number of migrants transiting through Serbia has decreased significantly over the years.

Serbian police recorded 10,389 illegal entries in the first half of 2024, which is nearly 70% less than the previous year.

Serbian officials have credited the drop to tighter cooperation with Austrian police and with Frontex.

Many migrants use smugglers to enter Serbia from Bulgaria and North Macedonia and then try to cross into EU members Hungary or Croatia.