Serbian Ministry of Interior
Serbian police search the banks of the Drina River near the Serbian town of Ljubovija.
At least 10 migrants, including a mother and baby girl, drowned when their boat capsized while trying to cross the Drina river, which separates Serbia and Bosnia, Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said.
Authorities said at least 18 migrants, including three children, reached the Bosnian border safely on Thursday. It was unclear how many were missing.
Authorities from both countries planned to resume the search on Friday morning after it had been suspended due to bad weather. Parts of the river are up to 200 metres (656 feet) wide.
Local media also reported that a manhunt was underway for the smugglers who had transported the migrants across the river.
Bosnian border police confirmed the incident took place on Thursday morning but gave no further details.
Serbian authorities also confirmed the incident took place near the border town of Ljubovija, with police adding that most of the migrants were of Moroccan origin.
Serbian Interior Minister Dacic later said his ministry staff had found “the body of a baby, about nine months old,” adding that “unfortunately, this baby is the tenth victim of the capsizing of the boat,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
The ministry said the baby “was with its mother, whose body was earlier retrieved from the river.”
Vladan Rankic, head of Bosnia's water rescue team, said on Thursday that bad weather had forced them to call off the search and rescue operation.
“We have so far recovered 10 people who had drowned. We don't know the exact number of people we are searching for, but the search is expected to continue into the early hours of tomorrow morning,” he told Association Press Television news.
Serbia and Bosnia are among the main transit countries on the route through the Western Balkans to the European Union.
In September 2023, this route surpassed the Central Mediterranean route through Italy in terms of the number of illegal border crossings, with many migrants passing through Bulgaria, according to the European Union's border control organization Frontex.
The Serbian government says more than one million people have entered the country from Asia and Africa since the refugee crisis began in 2015. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than one million migrants entered Europe that year.
Most of those who have attempted to enter Serbia in recent months have come from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan, according to government data.
However, the number of migrants passing through Serbia has fallen significantly over the years.
Serbian police recorded 10,389 cases of illegal entry in the first half of 2024, a decrease of about 70 percent compared to the previous year.
Serbian authorities credited the drop to close cooperation between Austrian police and the Agency for Foreign Trade and Cooperation (Frontex).
Many migrants use smugglers to enter Serbia from Bulgaria or North Macedonia, then try to cross into EU member states Hungary or Croatia.
