64 Bangladeshis found in a truck in Macedonia
Police in North Macedonia said 64 Bangladeshi migrants were found in a truck on a highway near the country's border with Greece, reports AP.
The driver evaded arrest during an inspection late Monday near Strumica in the country's southeast. In a statement Tuesday, police gave no other details about the migrants, the AP report said.
Contacted, Mutasimul Islam, first secretary at the labour welfare wing of the Bangladesh embassy in Spain, which is responsible to look after diplomatic issues in North Macedonia too, said they communicated with the North Macedonian government for details about the incident, but did not get any response till yesterday evening.
"We have sent an email to know about the incident. We will be able to tell about it once we get the reply," Mutasimul told The Daily Star via WhatsApp.
The migrants were detained and transferred to a holding site in the border town of Gevgelija, pending deportation to Greece, said the news agency on Tuesday.
Syeda Farhana Noor Chowdhury, labour welfare counsellor at the Bangladesh embassy in Athens, said they were contacting Bangladesh officials in Madrid regarding the incident in North Macedonia.
The so-called Balkan migration route, mostly running through former Yugoslav republics, has been closed since 2015 and Greek border with North Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the AP report.
But police said trafficking networks remain active in the border area, it added.
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