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CARRYING OUT PATROL WITH BORDER POLICE IN PRESEVO

8. December 2014.

Presevo - Since 2009, the border police in Presevo has prevent the entry of 20, 000 immigrants from the Afro-Asiatic countries.

According to the official information, the problem of human trafficking is on the rise and is done by crime and smuggling groups.  

The border is guarded round-the-clock by border police patrols from the “Rujan” regional center that covers 23 kilometers of the state border. Most illegal entries occur 15 kilometers east and west of the road border between Serbia and Macedonia. 

Smugglers usually bring immigrants in cars to the Macedonian side of the border, from where the migrants cross the border on foot, while another group of smugglers awaits them in Serbia,  usually on the highway, and transport them to Presevo and Vranje. The immigrants, thereafter, go to the north, to Croatia or Hungary. 

Djordje Kostic, a reporter of Al Jazeera, spent the night on patrol with the Presevo border police.  

The border police patrol goes to the field at 8 pm. After entering Serbia, Presevo Valley is the starting point of illegal immigrants. 

There is a thermo-camera installed on Maminski hill, so that it detects any movement near the border and reads any human presence in a 10-km area. Thanks to the thermo-camera, the detection of illegal immigrants doubled. When it encounters any potential moving or illegal crossing, the patrol in the valley is informed of the positions of illegal immigrants.

“They pose a major problem, especially in this area where we are - 15 kilometers east and west of the Presevo road border crossing. It is also the most jeopardized zone. Over the previous few months there has been a growth of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the territory of the Republic of Serbia”, said Dragan Lazarevic, Deputy Head of the regional center in Presevo.

Oliver Jovanovic, a police officer from Presevo, has been promoted because he discovered several criminal smuggling groups. He says that they are well organized and that the Serbs, Albanians and Roma are involved the said criminal act. The number of prevented immigration attempts is known, but the number of those who did pass by the police uncaught isn’t.  

A group of smugglers that had transferred 90 immigrants to Serbia was arrested in the Presevo Valley last week, and they were remanded in custody for 30 days.  Immigrants are pronounced a penalty for the illegal border crossing, and after paying it, they are sent to the centers for asylum seekers.

“The increase in the number of illegal immigrants in the territory of the Republic of Serbia means the increase in the crime rate in the area of ​​smuggling. According to the Border Police Directorate, smugglers take from one person between 50 and 200 euros for one crossing”, Mr. Kostic said.  

Predrag Trajkovic works at the Presevo customs control. He manages the truck scanner that detects human trafficking, as well as the smuggling of drugs, gold, money and other things.  After a vehicle passes through the scanner, one may read in the cabin what is in the vehicle.

“The mobile scanner is extremely powerful. It can penetrate a 30 centimeters thick metal and see what is behind it. It operates on the x-ray principle, it is safe and the one that works on it can see everything”, Mr. Trajkovic said.

Members of the police and customs say that they now apply a specific approach to working on combating international crime, because the smuggling chains increasingly include people with no criminal past.

Source: Al Jazeera and the Coordination Body