Seven people crammed into a single Fiat Stilo with Austrian plates, an unlicensed driver behind the wheel. That is the picture border police cut off last night at a junction on the local Bogorodica-Gevgelija road. The driver - a 36-year-old from Strumica. The passengers - four from Pakistan, two from Afghanistan and one from Turkey, all being smuggled illegally through the country.

The check turned up a second layer to the offence: the registration plates did not belong to the vehicle at all. He faces criminal charges under three articles of the Criminal Code - for migrant smuggling, for forging documents and for reckless driving. The migrants were taken to the „Vinojug“ reception and transit centre in Gevgelija.

The Gevgelija and Strumica areas are already known points on the Balkan route - where the border with Greece is closest, where every summer people fleeing war and poverty pass through, and where there is always someone ready to sell that desperate need for money. The 36-year-old is not the end of the chain, but its cheapest link - the man who drives while carrying all the risk.

The question that remains is familiar and tiresome from repetition: how many such Fiat Stilos pass unnoticed for every one the police stop? The border is guarded by people, but the route is held by networks. And networks rarely drive themselves.