SARAJEVO, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- A total of 31 illegal migrants were intercepted on Wednesday night in the area of Gradiska, some 260 kilometers north of Bosnia and Herzegovina's (BiH's) capital Sarajevo, Gradiska Police Administration told local media Thursday.
It is the biggest group of intercepted migrants in Gradiska. Among them, police officers found 13 citizens of Iraq, 7 of Syria, and 4 of Libya.
The police confirmed that these migrants were handed over to members of the country's Border Police.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants passed through the so-called "Balkan route" in 2015, trying to reach Western Europe. BiH was then not part of that route. The increasing number of migrants was recorded from the end of 2017, and since January this year, over 23,900 migrants and refugees arrived through Serbia and Montenegro.
Currently, there are between 4,000 and 5,000 migrants on the territory of BiH.
