Kosovo: Indictment filed against 27 persons for migrant smuggling

(Patria) - The Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo today filed an indictment against 27 persons for involvement in migrant smuggling.

As stated in the announcement, the 27 accused cooperated in smuggling more than 700 people from Albania to Kosovo. These are mostly migrants from Syria.

The suspected smugglers enabled migrants to travel to Serbia, from where they intended to go to European Union countries, RSE reports.

Kosovo has migrant reception centers, but most of them stay there only temporarily, until they find a way to go to EU countries.

The countries of the region are on the so-called Balkan route, active since 2015, through which refugees and migrants pass fleeing war and poverty, in an attempt to reach European Union countries.

Despite wires, cameras and joint border patrols, this route is the second most active refugee route, according to reports from the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).