Chinese Migrant Dies as Boat Sinks in Danube on Serbia-Croatia Crossing

Croatian police at the scene of the accident near Sotin. Photo: PU Vukovarsko-Srijemska. One Chinese citizen drowned in the Danube River when a boat carrying at least ten people capsized while trying to enter European Union member state Croatia from Serbia, police confirmed on Monday. According to Serbian and Croatian police, the incident happened on Sunday evening in the waters between the Serbian town of Plavna and the Croatian town of Sotin. Both countries said they suspect the boat was part of an illegal border crossing from Serbia into the EU.  Police in the Serbian town of Novi Sad were alerted to the incident just before 9pm on Sunday. Rescue teams from Croatia and Serbia saved nine people. Later one body was retrieved from the water near Backo Novo Selo.  Serbia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that its teams had found four Chinese citizens so far and had provided them with medical assistance. The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad in northern Serbia has qualified the incident as an unauthorised crossing of the state border and as people-smuggling.  Media in Serbia reported that one Serbian citizen was steering the boat, but there is no official information about his whereabouts. The Vukovar-Srijem Police Department of the Croatian police said it had received an alert on Sunday evening that several people were in the water on the Croatian side of the Danube. Dragoljub Zivkovic, a spokesperson for the Vukovar-Srijem police station, told BIRN Croatian police had rescued five people from the Danube, but as yet was unable to confirm the exact number of people who drowned. Croatian police said in a press release that they also suspect this was an attempt at an illegal border crossing into the EU.  Members of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service, HGSS, from the Vinkovci Station also took part in the search for the missing migrants on the Danube. Head of the Vinkovci Station, Zlatko Becic, confirmed to BIRN that HGSS members had been searching since last night. Police in both countries said the search for more victims continues.