Montenegrin police arrested 13 people and were searching for several others suspected of smuggling hundreds of migrants, prosecutors said on Friday.
Montenegro is one of the transit countries for migrants, including those fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, seeking to enter the European Union via the so-called 鈥楤alkan Route.鈥�
The Montenegro state prosecutor鈥檚 office said in a statement the suspects formed a gang 鈥榯o smuggle people from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Syria, and other countries to Montenegro鈥�.
It said they were accused of smuggling a total of 352 people 鈥榳ith the aim of gaining financial or other benefits鈥�.
Just the day before, police in neighbouring Serbia arrested members of two organised criminal groups accused of smuggling at least 176 migrants, the state prosecution service there said.
Serbia, a non-EU major state and a transit country on the 鈥楤alkan Route鈥�, has seen over a million people from Asia and Africa pass through its territory since the refugee crisis of 2015, according to the Serbian government. It says most of them hoped to reach neighbouring EU members Hungary and Croatia.
Serbian authorities 鈥榙etained 12 members of two organised criminal groups, while two are still at large,鈥� the Serbian prosecutors said in a statement.
The groups 鈥榮muggled a total of 176 irregular migrants over a four-month period.鈥�
Most of those attempting to cross via Serbia in recent months were from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco, and Pakistan, according to government data.
Many migrants have died on the journey.
In August, 12 people, including a nine-month-old baby, died when their boat capsized as they tried to cross the Drina River, which separates Serbia from Bosnia and Herzegovina.