SKOPJE, Northern Macedonia – Police in Northern Macedonia said on Sunday that they had found 80 migrants during a routine check in the central part of the country and arrested a truck driver for suspected migrant smuggling.
Police said in a statement that 79 Pakistanis and an Eritrean were found Saturday in the truck about 50 miles south of the capital, Skopje.
The truck driver, a 20-year-old Northern Macedonian national identified only by his initial AF, was arrested as he tried to flee. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
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The migrants were transferred to the migrant house in the southern border town of Gevgelija, awaiting deportation to Greece.
In two separate operations on Friday, police said they found a total of 55 migrants, including children, and arrested two men.
The Greek border with northern Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. But trade networks remain active, moving migrants making their way from Turkey to Greece and then trying to move north, via Serbia, to more prosperous countries in the European Union.
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Police said they had arrested a total of 567 migrants in July alone who were trying to pass through northern Macedonia illegally and arrested nine people, including three Serbian nationals, on suspicion of migrant trade.
