International train ran over 14 illegal migrants

According to the initial investigation, the findings indicate that 14 illegal migrants, mostly young people at the age not older than 20, lost their lives yesterday, and most of them were from Afghanistan and Somalia.

According to the information, yesterday night around 10:30 pm, a train driving on the relation Thessalonica – Belgrade, on the railway Veles-Skopje, came across a big group of migrants driving at great speed.

The train driver tried to warn them and to reduce the speed but without any success, and ran over 14 illegal migrants, that were probably transiting through Macedonia on their way to the EU member states. After the accident, medical teams and the responsible public prosecutor were at the scene of the accident, and besides the bodies of the killed persons, they also found 8 more persons, probably their relatives who survived the accident. They were taken to the nearest police station in Veles to get their statements.

Immediately after the tragic accident Macedonian Red Cross responded through the Migration Department and Department for Restoring Family Links and got in contact with the responsible institutions in the Republic of Macedonia. Macedonian Red Cross immediately informed the ICRC Regional Office in Belgrade about the accident, and that the national society is doing everything in frames of the role and mandate of the Red Cross.

Contact telephones of the Migration Department of Macedonian Red Cross +389 2 3139 578 or + 389 70 250 054

Contact telephones of the Department for Restoring Family Links of Macedonian Red Cross +389 71 223 895