Thousands of migrants have arrived in the EU from Africa and Middle East in the past few years. A Bosnian human trafficker explained to RT the details of their journey.
It’s a sort of relay as migrants are passed from one group of smugglers to another as they make their way through the Balkans, the smuggler, who called himself Max, told RT’s Maria Finoshina.
His team takes people from Serbia near Bijeljina and assists them in covering 340km to get to Cazin, on the Croatian border.
They are made up of between 5 and 20 asylum-seekers. “at night through some wooded areas,” according to the smuggler, who was interviewed for an upcoming film on the migrant issue by RT’s documentary channel, RTD.
Bosnia and Herzegovina are the destinations for migrants “through Serbia and also through small or big boats where they would sneak in. They also sometimes travelled by lorries – they get under a lorry. It’s a tough road,”Max said.
He insisted his team did its job. “honestly”He always gets the asylum seekers to their destination. He also knows about instances where other traffickers have mistreated asylum seekers. “tricked them, stole from them, left them on the side of the road.”
This route, along the Adriatic Coast, is available to migrants. “easier”He insisted on trying to reach the EU via Bulgaria, the Black Sea.
“From Turkey they get transported to Bulgaria. While Bulgaria is in the EU, if they get caught there, they get sent back (to Turkey), because there are no asylum laws allowing them to stay there.”
The smuggler stated that migrants who cross the border into Croatia to reach the EU are heading for Germany. They will be able to travel there once they have arrived. “it’s a done deal” – they’re being put in asylum centers and eventually receive residence permits. These people are just “throw their ID cards away so they can’t be deported, as German authorities don’t know where they come from,”He explained.
Continue reading
Max claimed that he’d transported “all kind of migrants – from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt,”Over the past few years. His answer when asked whether he worried about the possibility of criminals trying to attack Europe, was that: “We can’t know who is who; when you look at them, they look mostly poor and don’t look like terrorists.”
They are “desperate” as they’re trying to flee conflicts in their home countries, while being barred from entering the EU legally. “They get lost; they are sent back and come back again several times when they get caught,”Some of these people are on the run for up to three years. “At least we help them,”The smugglers spoke highly of their business. “It’s better if they manage to cross.”
Max claimed that he was a humantrafficker as it made him more money than any other legal position he had in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “It’s 300 to 500 euros per person,”He added.
But it’s definitely not the most carefree way to make a living. “Adrenaline, fear, police, drones, arrests,”Max was not recalled. “A lot of my friends got caught while transporting them. The migrants were sent back, and they (friends) went to prison.”
You think your friends might be interested in this story? Tell your friends!
[ad_2]
