Despite the closure of the Balkan route, efforts are intensifying to stop migrant smuggling through Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Despite the much-touted ‘closure’ of the Balkan route for refugees and migrants in 2016, there is still a steady flow of people moving through the Western Balkans trying to enter the EU via Croatia or Hungary.¹ Because of robust border management and pushbacks, many of these people are getting stuck in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in refugee camps close to the border, increasing incentives for smugglers and causing some refugees and migrants to move east instead of west. This article looks at the current situation, particularly around the city of Zvornik, in the Republic of Srpska. It highlights a growing trend towards smugglers from countries of origin other than the Balkans, increased use of mobile technology due to the end of roaming fees and a shift in trafficking routes.

Since 2018, Bosnia and Herzegovina has been a key transit country for refugees and migrants. Official figures suggest that 75 000 people passed through the country between 2018 and 2021,² while a senior official at Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ministry of security put the number closer to 90 000.³ So far in 2021, the country’s service for foreigners has recorded approximately 7 500 irregular migrants. The number of people on the move is usually higher in the summer, from April to September.

Figure 2 Bosnia and Herzegovina is a key transit country for migrants moving through the Western Balkans towards the EU.

Migrant smuggling is a profitable business in the Western Balkans. Here, a migrant family is stopped by police after a smuggler’s arrest near the Serbia–Hungary border.

Photo: Csaba Segesvari/AFP via Getty Images

Most of the refugees and migrants entering Bosnia and Herzegovina come through Montenegro or Serbia. A popular route is across the Drina river, which makes up a good part of the 363-kilometre border between Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Groups of migrants tend to cross the river and head towards Cajnice, Rudo, Visegrad, Zvornik and Bijeljina, and then on to Tuzla.⁴

Refugees and migrants seldom stay very long in the Republic of Srpska, due in part to the fact that there is nowhere for them to stay. All six reception centres in the country are in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but many migrants choose not to stay in these facilities. Currently, out of a total of 1 927 migrants identified in Bosnia and Herzegovina in a one-month period from 17 March to 19 April 2021, 1 754 of them stated that they were not accommo­dated in any reception centre in the country, which means they were invisible and undetected by the system. According to the International Organization for Migration in Bosnia and Herzegovina, most of these people (around 1 295) were located in Una-Sana canton close to the border with Croatia.⁵

Although many migrants move at night to avoid detection, police along the Serbia–Bosnia and Herzegovina border note that groups are also moving during the day. A border police officer told the GI-TOC: ‘Now that the “season” begins, groups go more frequently during the day, as if they are scheduled. The other day I saw more than a hundred [migrants] around the station in Milici near Zvornik.’ ⁶

Smugglers and mixed migrant groups are able to communicate by mobile phone. Local SIM cards can be bought for less than €5 and roaming in the Western Balkans is free since 1 July 2021.

According to police, whereas in the past much of the smuggling was facilitated by locals who knew the terrain, migrants are increasingly taking over the business. According to one officer, ‘they have organized a complete network and trained guides on the situation on the ground, and about 5% who pass by go back for new groups’. This trend has also been evident in other parts of the region. On 29 July, Romanian police supported by EUROPOL arrested 18 people suspected of smuggling migrants from Romania to Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary. The criminal network included Egyptian, Iraqi, Syrian and Romanian citizens.⁷

Nevertheless, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, locals are still very much part of the business. In August 2021, 16 people were indicted for attempting to smuggle 850 migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia between September and December 2020. Although the leader of the organized group was Pakistani, most of the other members were Bosnian citizens.⁸

Based on data from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s prosecutor’s office, in the period from January 2020 until June 2021, more than 60 people were incarcerated for migrant smuggling, of which 50 were citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and 13 were foreign citizens, mostly from Afghanistan but also from Iran, Pakistan, Tunisia and Cameroon.⁹ But there is a growing trend of some migrants, particularly Afghans and Pakistanis, becoming traffickers. In April 2021, five people from Afghanistan were arrested for smuggling migrants, mostly other Afghans, across the borders between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Croatia.¹⁰ On 15 June 2021, two Pakistani citizens were charged with organizing the smuggling of a large group of migrants from Afghanistan and Pakistan across the Drina river.¹¹

Although smugglers are in demand, some migrants prefer to make the journey independently, relying on their own wits and contacts to move through countries and across borders. Border police told the GI-TOC that people on the move seem to be increasingly savvy about where and how to cross, and how to interact with police.

In some cases, it is alleged that border police facilitate rather than hinder crossings. A border policeman said that ‘hardly anyone in the shift isn’t taking bribes for letting people cross the border. We get quite clear instructions from our superiors on when and where to allow them to pass. We don’t see any money, we just get our cut.’ However, he noted that at other times, they receive orders ‘not to allow them in at any cost.’¹²

The traditional route for refugees and migrants has been through Tuzla, and then towards Una-Sana canton in the north-east of the country before attempting to cross into Croatia. Depending on the distance covered, number of people smuggled together and means of transport, in 2019 and 2020, migrants and refugees paid between €100 and €500 to cross Bosnia and Herzegovina (see Figure 3).¹³

However, pushbacks and violence against migrants have caused some desperate people to look for alternative routes.¹⁴ There are recent reports of migrants coming from the direction of Sarajevo heading towards Zvornik, rather than the other way around. An Algerian migrant who unsuccessfully attempted to cross into Croatia three times via Bihac said: ’I will try a different route this time, because I heard that some are passing by Zvornik and towards Serbia to Hungary. I need €300 to pay passage from Serbia to Hungary, and for any other passages I need much more money. Other migrants told me to go to Zvornik, pass a border by bribing some police officer, giving him €50, then catch a train near Petlovaca in Serbia.’

It is worth noting that, in 2019–2020, migrants passing by Zvornik paid between €200 and €300 to enter Bosnia and Herzegovina from Serbia, in the direction of Una-Sana canton.¹⁵ So while the direction of the flow may be changing, the prices remain more or less the same.

But moving through Serbia is becoming increasingly difficult. The border between Serbia and Hungary is heavily protected with a fence and with Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, deploying 44 officers to Serbia in June 2021 to detect criminal activities such as people smuggling, trafficking in human beings, document fraud and smuggling of stolen vehicles, illegal drugs, weapons and excise goods, as well as potential terrorist threats. In the coming months, the number of Frontex officers is expected to rise to 87 upon Serbia’s request, mostly to monitor Serbia’s border with Bulgaria. This adds to Frontex’s existing deployment in Albania and Montenegro, along with patrol cars, helicopters and other equipment.¹⁶

On 27 July 2021, Serbia’s interior minister, Aleksandar Vulin, signed an agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina’s minister of security, Selmo Cikotić, regarding border traffic and border management in eastern Bosnia. Thus far, the border between Serbia and the Republic of Srpska has been relatively porous. But Vulin stated that increased cooperation between both countries is necessary to prevent the region from becoming ‘a parking lot for migrants’.¹⁷

Bosnia has also enhanced its cooperation with Austria. On 28 April 2021, Cikotić and Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer signed a memorandum in Sarajevo to strengthen cooperation to more effectively counter migration flows.¹⁸ There are concerns by human rights experts that this may facilitate the return of asylum seekers from Austria to Bosnia and Herzegovina.¹⁹ Austria has also announced steps to strengthen control of its borders with Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia with an additional 400 soldiers, and to facilitate repatriation of Afghan migrants.²⁰ In addition, at a meeting of Western Balkan countries in Vienna in June 2021, Austria announced that it will support governments in the region in their efforts to repatriate migrants to their countries of origin.²¹

Although the smuggling of migrants through the Western Balkans has not abated and the number of desperate people on the move may increase because of the situation in Afghanistan, hardening the outer borders of the EU will only increase the pressure on the Western Balkans, and the incentives for smugglers. Such a policy helps populists in Western Europe and the Balkans, but it is not likely to provide a sustain­­able long-term solution to the problem. Too often, the alternative to organized resettlement is organized crime.

Notes