At least three migrants trying to cross from Bosnia into EU-member Croatia drowned after their boat overturned in the River Sava near Slavonski Brod.
Police conduct a crime scene investigation on the Sava riverbank. Photo: Srdjan Hasic Vudjan/Radio Brod
Three dead migrants and eight survivors were pulled from the Sava River in Slavonski Brod on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina early on Thursday after a boat capsized.
“We received a call from the ambulance reporting that migrants had capsized and drowned on the Sava River. We went out with two fire trucks and a boat. There were 11 migrants, eight alive and three dead, who were pulled out,” Ivan Vuleta, commander of the Slavonski Brod Public Fire Department, told Hina news agency.
The surviving migrants were treated and taken to hospital, he said. A Bosnian citizen allegedly involved in the illegal transfer of people across the borde is also in the hospital and under police surveillance.
There is unofficial information is that the group of migrants consisted mainly of Chinese citizens.
Vuleta said that the initial rescue point was north of the bridge, upstream from the Sava Bridge, where most of the migrants were found, while some had drifted downstream toward the city stadium.
The tragedy in Slavonski Brod is only the latest in a series of fatal attempts at illegally crossing the Sava River in Brod-Posavina County. Over the past three years, more than 10 migrants have drowned there.
The 175-kilometer border between EU-member Croatia and Bosnia runs along the middle of the Sava River. Nighttime conditions and thick fog, as was the case on Thursday morning, make border crossings dangerous – but also aid smugglers who exploit poor visibility to cross the river unnoticed.
Croatia is an important transit country for people trying to illegally enter the EU, and Zagreb this week welcomed EU movers to toughen curbs on illegal migration. The changes speed up and simplify the procedures for the return of persons illegally staying in EU member states.