Neretva river swallows Maroccan migrant in Mostar

GSS u BiH

Mostar police received a call on Wednesday, saying a man entered the Neretva river to wash his face, after which the river pulled him in, never to be seen again.

“Mostar Police Station received a call at around 13:30 by a Mostar resident saying that they saw a man entering the river and washing his face, when the current pulled him under. The police immediately came to the scene and found out that the man was a Moroccan migrant who was with his cousin at the bank, at the moment,” the police said on Thursday.

The city Search and Rescue Service deployed its divers to search for the missing man, downstream, but the search stopped two hours later with no success.

All other competent institutions were notified about the incident and the police continued searching the terrain.

Last year, 25,000 migrants entered the country and competent authorities estimate that there are around 9,000 of them in the country right now.

Migrants started flocking to Bosnia after Bulgaria and Hungary imposed strict border controls and stopped migrants from entering their country, effectively blocking the migrants’ “Balkan route.”

They have no wish of staying in Bosnia or eastern EU member states, though, but want to continue their path to Western EU states like Germany, France and Austria, hoping to find a better life.

Bosnian authorities estimate there are roughly 9,000 migrants in the country at the moment, of which only 8 percent are refugees and the rest are economic migrants.