At least 64 Bangladeshi migrants have been found in a truck on a highway near North Macedonia’s border with Greece, Associated Press reported.
The truck’s driver evaded arrest during the inspection near Strumica, in the country’s southeast, late Monday, said North Macedonia’s police in a statement on Tuesday.
They gave no other details about the migrants.
The migrants were detained and transferred to a holding site in the border town of Gevgelija -- pending deportation to Greece.
Greek border with North Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the so-called Balkan migration route, mostly running through former Yugoslav republics, has been closed since 2015.
However, police say trafficking networks remain active in the border area.
North Macedonia, which has applied to join the European Union, is on the so-called Balkan route taken by many migrants from Greece towards northern Europe.
On February 14, Macedonian police have discovered 47 migrants in an abandoned truck in the southwest region of the Balkan country near the borders of Bulgaria and Greece.
On February 14, police have found 53 migrants crammed inside a truck. The driver of the vehicle has been arrested on suspicion of belonging to a human trafficking gang.
On January 15, authorities found 36 migrants who entered the Balkan nation illegally from neighboring Greece. They were discovered packed in a truck during a routine check.
The Balkan migrant route officially closed in 2015 when countries along it shut their borders, blocking a main passage to northern Europe.
Yet thousands of people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and beyond continue to travel via Turkey, Greece and the Balkans in the hopes of reaching Western Europe.
