Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called on EU leaders to do more to prevent violence against migrants on the Balkan Route. Their staff reportedly has treated nearly 500 people with injuries inflicted by border authorities at the Serbian-Hungarian border since early 2021.
The European Union’s Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson has praised Serbia’s handling of migration, a day after Serbian authorities rounded up nearly 700 migrants and moved them to reception centers.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has sentenced the Hungarian government to almost €40,000 in damages for the death of a Syrian refugee. The incident occurred while he tried to cross from Serbia to Hungary by boat on the Tisza river in 2016.
The foreign ministers of Hungary and Serbia, Peter Szijjarto and Ivica Dacic, have met in Budapest to discuss ways to work together against new migrant flows.
The winter weather in Europe is making it even more difficult for migrants trying to get from Serbia to western Europe. But many are still braving the cold, waiting for a chance to cross the border, says DW's Idro Seferi.
The number of migrants entering the EU irregularly has continued to rise, according to the border agency Frontex. The largest number -- around 140,000 -- traveled through the Western Balkans.
A new European investigative journalism report alleges that migrants are being "abitrarily detained and tortured at secret facilities along EU borders before being illegally forced back across [those] borders."
New barbed wire fences are being erected across Europe’s eastern borders. Many of these barriers are between the EU and Russia or Russian-friendly states like Belarus, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But they also stop migrants and asylum seekers from entering the bloc.
Two men said to be people smugglers were taken into custody in Hungary on Monday following a car chase in which they opened fire on police. 21 migrants were found inside the suspects' van.
Samia first left Algeria with her two small children to join her husband in Turkey. Together, they then took the Balkan route with the goal of reaching France, where Samia's sister lives. The family is now stuck in northern Serbia, where they are waiting to cross the Hungarian border.
Crossing the northern border of Serbia is one of the most difficult stages for migrants on the Balkan route because of double fences, barbed wire, cameras and the risk of violent pushbacks. Migrants here often resort to the services of smugglers whose control in the region is omnipresent. Marlène Panara reports from northern Serbia.
There has been an increase in the interceptions of undocumented migrants at the Slovakian border, after patrols were intensified due to the reinstatement of border controls by the Czech Republic and Austria in the Schengen area.