144 Bangladeshi migrants detained in North Macedonia

Authorities in North Macedonia have found 211 migrants including 144 Bangladeshi nationals packed into a truck near the country's southern border with Greece during a routine check on a regional road, according to police.

A border patrol stopped the truck about midnight on Monday near the town of Gevgelija, and found the migrants - 144 from Bangladesh and 67 from Pakistan - packed inside, police said on Tuesday.

The truck driver, a 27-year-old Macedonian national identified by police only by his initials EP, was arrested.

The migrants were detained and transferred to a shelter transit centre in Gevgelija pending deportation back to Greece.

The Greek border with North Macedonia was closed earlier this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

But trafficking networks remain active in the area, ferrying migrants who make their way from Turkey into Greece and then head north towards more prosperous countries in the European Union's centre and north.

Source:Aljazeera