Police in North Macedonia find 211 migrants crammed into truck at Greek border

Police in North Macedonia have found 211 migrants — including 63 children — packed into a truck near the border with Greece.

The truck was stopped by border police around midnight on Monday during a routine check on a regional road near the town of Gevgelija.

Police say that 144 of the migrants are from Bangladesh and 67 from Pakistan.

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

The individual is being held at the Gevgelija Police Station before charges are filed.

Police officers from the Regional Center for Border Affairs and Migration say the truck held Skopje registration plates.

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.