The chief of Border Patrol in the southern Serbian town of Vranje, Boban Arizanović, told FoNet that 7,390 illegal immigrants were arrested in Serbia this year, while another 5,000 are waiting in Patras, Greece to cross through Serbia and Macedonia on their way to the European Union. He added that illegal migrants use well-established routes through Turkey, Greece, and Macedonia, and are frequently in poor condition upon their arrival to Serbia. Arizanović stated that the migrants usually gather in Macedonian villages along the border with Serbia, where they wait to be picked up by the Serbian trafficking groups. According to the Serbian police, the arrested traffickers smuggled immigrants in groups of 18 to 50 individuals, using the so-called green belt along the border between Serbia and Hungary, near the northern Serbian towns of Bajmok, Banatsko Aranđelovo, Rabe and Martono.
The arrests are a part of an extensive crack down on human trafficking in Serbia.
