Migrant Boat Capsizes on Bosnia-Serbia Border

A boat carrying ten illegal migrants turned over in the river on the border between Serbia and Bosnia near the village of Tabanci, near the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik.

Police in Bosnia's mainly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, RS, said no one was injured.

Bosnian border police, RS police and members of the RS Civil Protection rescued the migrants, according to Miljan Bobar, the police spokesman in Zvornik.

Illegal migration is a growing problem in Bosnia, Serbia and the Balkans generally as migrants seeking to reach Western Europe turn to a new "Balkan route".

No longer attempting to enter heavily policed Hungary and then Austria from northern Serbia, the new route involves crossing parts of Serbia and Bosnia and then reaching Italy from Montenegro or Albania.

According to Peter Van der Auweraert, the International Organization for Migration's sub-regional coordinator for the Western Balkans, "about 70 per cent of migrants arriving illegally in Bosnia and Herzegovina come from Serbia, others come from Montenegro", he told the Bosnian daily Avaz on Tuesday.

He added that since January of this year, about 5,500 migrants had entered Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Police from Bosnia were carefully monitoring the country's eastern border on Wednesday.

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