Two individuals - a Moroccan and an Algerian national - were arrested by the Serbian police in connection to seven bodies found in a shipment of fertilizers in Paraguay on Oct. 29. During the week of Oct. 19, workers outside an office facility in Asuncion, Paraguay, found the decomposing bodies of seven migrants in a shipping container; the Serbian police suspect the two arrested in relation to the case of smuggling and illegally crossing borders.
The police allege that the accused had helped the migrants into a freight train headed for Croatia and that during the journey, the migrants died in the containers, which eventually found themselves in Paraguay.
So far, investigators have identified three of the seven migrants as Moroccan nationals and one as an Egyptian national. The identities of the other three migrants remain unknown. Investigators also stated that the shipping container in which the bodies were found left the shores of Serbia on Jul. 22, but as the chief investigator on the case, Mr. Marcelo Saldivar, stated, the victims died on their way to Croatia possibly due to “starvation, lack of oxygen, or perhaps some illness.”
The incident highlights the gravity of the issues faced by migrants as they put their lives at risk in search of a better future in wealthier countries: not only is there the uncertainty that accompanies leaving one’s own land to seek refuge in a nation-state that is not guaranteed to accept asylum seekers, but there is also the danger regarding the lack of safety in the process of getting to one’s destination.
It is concerning that amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, organized crime experts have warned that the cases of human smuggling are likely to increase in number. UN agencies have indeed found this to be the case. In such an environment, authorities (especially some along the Balkan route through which the aforementioned seven possibly intended to reach Western Europe) seem to have cracked down not just on smugglers, but troublingly, also on migrants.
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