More than 1,300 people have been arrested for human smuggling this year.Continue reading
According to an expert interviewed by the daily Magyar Nemzet, the conflict between the Afghan human smugglers may have flared up because of a dispute over territorial control.
It is very likely that Afghan human smugglers opened fire on each other close to the Serbian side of the border with Hungary, just as they did a few months ago, said Viktor Marsai, director of the Migration Research Institute, about the fresh shooting between migrants in the Makkhetes forest near Szabadka (Subotica) last Friday.
The expert believes that the conflict between the smugglers could have been sparked by a dispute over territorial control. Organized criminal groups have professionally allocated territories among themselves, on the basis of which they organize transport to the border. Friction between smuggling groups often ends in violence, he added.
Marsai recalled that it is not difficult to obtain weapons in the Western Balkans today, as there are many weapons left over from the war and circulating in the region. He added that organized crime groups had and still have weapons, thus there is nothing surprising about their emergence.
“We see a lot of illegal migrants being recruited by local organized crime groups. They know how to communicate with migrants better than the locals, they know their customs, their language,” he explained.
Featured photo via Police.hu