balkan route

• Bosnia & Herzegovina

The Council of Europe's representative on migration and refugees, Drahoslav Stefanec, has urged Bosnia to draft and implement a policy capable of structuring and coordinating the country's institutional response to migration flows, after a visit to the country.

• Serbia

Serbian police announced on Sunday that they had discovered an "illegal migrant camp" on the border with Hungary and Romania. The police said that they had detained "suspected people smugglers" at the camp.

• Croatia
• Bosnia & Herzegovina

Human rights activists slammed Croatian authorities for violent pushbacks of migrants and called for the abolition of the EU's Frontex border agency. Croatia denies taking violent measures against migrants.

• Italy
• Greece
• Bosnia & Herzegovina

A new report published by Oxfam and other NGOs has denounced that underage migrants who have travelled to Europe on their own face obstacles once they turn 18 due to a complicated bureaucracy.

• Italy
• Slovenia

Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese and her Slovenian counterpart Aleš Hojs on Friday decided to resume joint police patrols within the next month along the Slovenian-Italian border to curb migration flows to Western Europe along the Balkan route.

• Hungary
• Serbia
• Romania

In northeast Serbia, hundreds of migrants are sheltering in the hope of being able to cross the border to Romania. The route is seen as an easier and cheaper way to reach Europe.

• Bosnia & Herzegovina

Bosnian authorities have asked local police to move about 250 migrants who were staying in an abandoned building near the city of Bihac and resettle them in the official Lipa camp nearby.

• Croatia
• Hungary
• Montenegro

A new report has placed a spotlight on the migrant smuggling business and other illicit activities running through the Western Balkans, including drugs and money laundering. The report estimates that the migrant smuggling business alone could be worth up to €50 million per year in the region.

• Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Croatia
• Greece

A Balkans-based network of human rights groups has released a report on pushbacks against migrants in Greece and Croatia. It claims that systematic violence by Croatian and Greek authorities often amounts to "torture or inhuman and degrading treatment."

• Bosnia & Herzegovina

The German Red Cross has announced a new emergency aid project to support migrants and refugees in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Hundreds of migrants continue to transit the country en route to the European Union.

• Italy

UNICEF and Save the Children said that in the four months that their joint border program has been active, they have provided assistance to more than 130 families and 570 unaccompanied minors in Ventimiglia and Lampedusa.

• Spain
• Morocco
• Greece

The number of undocumented migrants arriving in Europe, especially via the eastern Mediterranean Sea route, has decreased, according to the EU border agency. At the same time, more are making the crossing from North Africa.