Sarajevo, 25 May 2026, dtt-net.com – 2 Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) nationals are detained while attempting to smuggle 15 illegal migrants to Croatia, on their way to the further EU north. Police said it prevented the smuggling on May 22 in Gradiska municipality near the northern border with the EU member country.
‘The smuggling was discovered in the border zone in the Gradiška area, where members of the Gradiška Border Police Unit and the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) who provide assistance in border surveillance checked two passenger motor vehicles with BiH national registration plates, a Škoda carrying eight Bangladeshi citizens and one Pakistani citizen, and a Renault vehicle carrying four Bangladeshi citizens and two Pakistani citizens,” BiH border police said.
The two detainees will be charged of migrant smuggling foreign citizens were handed over to members of the BiH Service for Foreigners’ Affairs, along with a proposal for issuing a decision on the expulsion of foreigners.
Compared to January-April 2025 period, the number of irregular border crossings through Western Balkans region to the EU territory in same period 2026 dropped for 19% less, to 2829 respectively, according to the new data by EU’s border agency FRONTEX.
According to the agency, the Croatian border with BiH remained the “main exit point” from the region while as weather improves and migrant mobility increases, the route is expected to come under growing pressure from secondary movements linked to the Eastern Mediterranean.
A decrease for 42 % of irregular entries of migrants to the EU through Western Balkans route in 2025 compared to 2024 is reported FRONTEX.
