BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — A boat carrying migrants overturned while crossing the Drina river from Serbia to Bosnia, Serbian police said Thursday.
Police received a call around 5 a.m. from counterparts in Bosnia and a citizen who reported the accident, said Serbia’s Interior Minister Ivica Dacic.
Dacic said that 18 migrants, including three children, managed to cross into Bosnia, out of 25 people who were in the boat when it overturned.
Divers are expected to join the search in the Drina river, Dacic said.
Migrants using the so-called Balkan land route in their efforts to reach Western Europe come to Serbia from Bulgaria or North Macedonia before moving on to Hungary, Croatia or Bosnia.
To reach wealthy European countries, people fleeing wars and poverty often turn to people smugglers to take them across borders without authorization.
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