At least one migrant died on December 11th, and more than ten were rescued while trying to cross the Sava River, on the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, they reported. local media.
"We received a tip from the police that there were more migrants in the Sava near the stadium in Slavonski Brod and we pulled three out of there, two are alive and one is in serious condition," they stated at the Public Fire Department in Slavonski Brod.
Previously, at another location near Slavonski Brod, police rescued six people "who were holding on to the raft."
Among the survivors is a citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who is suspected of human trafficking, Croatian media reported.
The suspect has been hospitalized and is under police surveillance.
All those rescued had hypothermia and were taken to a hospital in Slavonski Brod, a town 190 kilometers east of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
Croatia is a major transit country for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe via the Balkan route.
BBC Serbian has not received answers from the Croatian police and fire department about the causes of the accident.
It's not the first time
Accidents across the Drina and Sava rivers have become more frequent in recent years, since the route taken by refugees and migrants towards the European Union shifted from Hungary to Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
U August 2024, at least 10 people died in the Drina, the river that separates Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Among the victims were a mother and her nine-month-old baby, said Ivica Dačić, the Serbian Minister of Interior, at the time.
Authorities said at least 18 more migrants and refugees, including three children, had arrived safely on the Bosnian side of the border.
In 2024, a boat carrying migrants capsized in the Drina River near Bratunac, a municipality in Republika Srpska, one of the two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are among the main transit countries on the route through the Western Balkans to the European Union.
Government of Serbia she announced last year that more than a million people from Asia and Africa have entered the country since 2015.
The largest drop in illegal migration to the EU was recorded on the Western Balkan route, she announced in July this year, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).
On the route leading through the Western Balkans, Frontex registered 4.930 illegal crossing attempts in the first six months of 2025.
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