Serbia: Afghan migrant 'shot dead by hunting party' in woods

25.8.16

I CARE - - News - Internet Centre Anti Racism Europe 



24/8/2016- Police have arrested a member of a hunting party in Serbia
after a young Afghan migrant was shot dead in the woods near the
Bulgarian border.  Security forces in Pirot were patrolling the woods,
in the southeast of Serbia,
when they "heard a shot and then met six migrants, one of whom had been
shot in the chest." They then came across four hunters at the scene and
arrested one of them on suspicion of shooting the 20-year-old migrant. A
Serbian defence ministry spokesman said: "Upon the arrival of emergency
services, doctors could only establish the death of a 20-year old male
citizen of Afghanistan." It gave no further details. The suspect, who
was named only as M.M, lives in Pirot and is understood to be in his
late thirties. Prosecutors ordered the man to be held in custody for 48
hours.

Serbia lies on the so-called Baltic route taken by hundreds of thousands of migrants attempting to reach central Europe. It
comes a few weeks after Serbia's Interior Minister, Nebojsa Stefanovic,
announced tough new plans to tighten its controls on the southern
border in a bid to stem the flow of migrants. He announced the creation
of a joint police and military force tasked with pushing economic
migrants back across the border and cracking down on people smuggling.
“Refugees do not want to stay in Serbia or to seek asylum here. However,
in accordance with the law, we will provide asylum to those who seek it
[in Serbia]," he told Serbia's public broadcaster RTL. Both Serbia and Hungary
have been accused of turning a blind eye to some migrants and allowing
them to slip through their borders into neighbouring countries.