Skopje Man Caught with Seven Migrants in His Car near Bogorodica, 17-Year-Old Egyptian Also Arrested

A Škoda with Skopje number plates, seven migrants inside and two more from the group outside the car. The Balkan route ran through Bogorodica once again - and this time it ended at a police station.

On 11 October at around 4:50 p.m., officers from the Bogorodica border control and surveillance police station stopped a car near the village of Bogorodica, outside Gevgelija, driven by 39-year-old B.K. from Skopje. Inside they found seven migrants - five from Afghanistan and two from Egypt. The Skopje man was detained.

Not the whole group was in the car. At around 6:30 p.m., police found two more Egyptian nationals who had been part of it but had not got into the vehicle, at a spot known as Kravarski Pat. Then on 12 October, five minutes after midnight, a 17-year-old from Egypt with temporary residence in Greece was arrested on suspicion of the crime under Article 418-b of the Criminal Code - migrant smuggling.

The migrants have been placed in the Reception and Transit Centre in Gevgelija, while the Skopje man and the minor are being held at a police station. Once the case is fully documented, criminal charges will follow.

The most uncomfortable detail in the whole story is the age. A seventeen-year-old living in Greece, suspected of smuggling people across a border. The driver will face the consequences. The question is who stands behind the drivers and the minors - and whether that person will ever show up in a police bulletin.