In an apparent case of human smuggling, Slovenian police have discovered 13 migrants hidden in a cargo truck. Migrants are regularly discovered crammed into trucks and cars heading through the Balkans en route to western Europe.
Save The Children has warned that hundreds of unaccompanied minors and children with their families are trapped along the Balkan route and are suffering pushbacks from EU nations, trafficking, and exploitation.
Thousands of refugees and migrants wait in Bosnia for the possibility to enter the EU. Disagreements over how to distribute aid threaten to leave many in cold — if it weren't for volunteers working on their own.
Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin has defended his country's treatment of migrants in a speech to the parliament. He also warned that Serbia does not intend to become "a parking area for migrants".
The Italian Red Cross has launched an online fundraiser. The goal: To raise money for its operation supporting migrants and refugees in Bosnia.
Authorities in the northeastern region of Friuli Venezia Giulia have expressed concern for the high number of unaccompanied foreign minors reaching Italy from the Balkan route through the northeastern border.
Six young Afghans, including four minors, were rescued by Carabinieri police on January 28. According to police, they had been on the road for the last eight months.
Local volunteer Zlatan Kovacevic says that the situation in Bosnia is slowly going from bad to worse, as helpers begin to encounter corpses and growing violence against migrants. Children are particularly at risk, according to Save the Children.
Aid workers are increasingly alarmed about the worsening situation of the some 1,500 migrants stuck in northwest Bosnia, hundreds of whom are staying in abandoned buildings and makeshift forest settlements with little access to aid. InfoMigrants spoke with German streetwork doctor Gerhard Trabert about his patients' physical and mental health, a lack of cooperation at the expense of the migrants and what ought to happen next.
More than 400 police officers were involved in raids in four different German states and Austria against an international people smuggling ring on Tuesday morning. The ring is thought to have trafficked more than 100 people, mostly from Syria, illegally into Germany. Five suspects were arrested, a total of 19 are being investigated.
Bosnian Premier Zoran Tegeltija has said that Bosnia-Herzegovina can't handle the migrant crisis on its own. The country needs support from the European Union, not just financially, he said in an interview published on January 15.
Amnesty International and aid workers continue to sound the alarm amid the worsening situation of migrants in northwest Bosnia. While those staying at the Lipa camp now have heated tents, hundreds in makeshift forest settlements and abandoned buildings have little access to aid.