Tortured migrants and demanded money?

With the arrest of three Pakistanis, police officers ended a hostage situation during which a group of 11 migrants - seven from Egypt and four from Syria - were captured.

The assistant director of the police for the Department for the fight against crime told reporters yesterday Lazar Scepanovic at an extraordinary press conference, explaining that "violence and abuse were committed" against the detained persons.

Three foreigners were deprived of their liberty near the Božaj border crossing, and they are charged with the crimes of kidnapping and extortion.

"With a successful operation that lasted several hours in a large rural area, I can freely say that there was also a hostage situation, 11 migrants were freed, seven from Egypt, four from Syria. We have deprived three Pakistani citizens of their freedom. In all these activities, the Higher State Prosecutor's Office was informed in a timely and synchronized manner. By order of the senior state prosecutor... the citizens of Pakistan are accused of having committed a criminal offense - kidnapping carried out in an organized manner. For this criminal offense, a prison sentence of up to 15 years is threatened," Šćepanović said.

He explained that the Police Directorate (UP) received intelligence from Albanian colleagues that a criminal group of migrants had restricted the movement of a larger group of migrants in the border zone in Božaj: "On whom they are doing violence, abuse, extortion with the use of threats with cold weapons, causing physical injuries ".

Šćepanović said that UP officers then formed a crisis headquarters and came up with an emergency response plan: "Where they performed a tactical assessment of the terrain reconnaissance", knowing that they had a complex security task ahead of them.

"After joining the organization, we hired and raised the highest possible level of security forces. First of all, the Anti-Terrorism Unit of the Police Administration, the Special Police Unit, the Helicopter Unit, the officers of the Department for the Fight against Crime in charge of illegal migration and human trafficking, officers of the Border Police with service dogs and a large number of operational forces made available to solve this crisis task. explained the head of the Sector for the fight against crime.

Acting Assistant Director for the Border Police Sector Milutin Vasiljević he said that 11 migrants are currently staying in the Reception Center for foreigners, where, he said, they are being provided with adequate assistance.

He explained that Montenegro is on the route of illegal migrants: "Ever since the migrant crisis began in 2014, a large number of migrants have been registered on the so-called Balkan route, in the direction of Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia."

Vasiljević said that the number of migrants was at its peak in 2022, when 8.550 of them resided in the country.

He said that the Border Police takes care of border security through various action plans, mobile controls, and a system of electronic monitoring of the state border"...

"Most migrants, when they cross the border line, report to the reception center located in Božaj. There, migrants register for a day or two of temporary shelter, to be provided with food and lodging, after which they express their intention to apply for asylum. They receive a concrete document with which they can move around the territory of Montenegro, until the asylum procedure is resolved. The problem in the last couple of months is caused by migrants harassing other migrants. They take their money, various valuables, and move into a phase of kidnapping people and extorting them from their families, so that they can continue," Vasiljević pointed out.

Eleven migrants are currently staying in the Reception Center for foreigners, where they are provided with adequate assistance, said the head of the Border Police Sector, Milutin Vasiljević.

Šćepanović told reporters yesterday that the intelligence and security sector has never functioned better, which, he claims, is confirmed by the results and the recognition of the international community"...

In six months of this year, 1.707 migrants in the country

The number of migrants in Montenegro varies since 2018, when 4.753 migrants stayed here.

A year later, according to Vasiljević, there were 7.987 of them, and in 2020, 3.149 of them would reside in Montenegro.

"In 2021, there were 3.405 of them, and in 2023, a drop of 37 percent was recorded, so 5.314 migrants resided in Montenegro. For the first six months of this year, 1.707 migrants were recorded," he said.