Eight die as car carrying suspected migrants falls into Albanian ravine
Eight people have died in southern Albania when a car carrying suspected migrants swerved off a mountain road into a ravine, police said.
The car fell on the rocky bank of the fast-flowing Vjosa River, about 240 kilometers southeast of the capital, Tirana, around 4 a.m., according to a police statement.
Police added that the road the car was traveling on is frequently used by migrants from the Middle East and Africa to cross the Balkan country, police official Ardian Cipa said.
“It is suspected the driver is from Shkodra … we are trying to identify him. We believe the others are illegal migrants,” Cipa said, declining to give more details until the investigation is finished. Shkodra is a northwestern city around 300 kilometers from the accident site.
The charred and crumpled vehicle was surrounded by at least four bodies strewn over the rocks, a witness said. Police taped off the area.
A police patrol spotted a car driving at high speed along the road in the early hours of Tuesday, but could not stop it. They later found the vehicle crashed in the ravine, Cipa said.
Since 2015, Balkan countries have become key transit routes for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan, Asia and Africa fleeing wars and poverty to the European Union. Many use smuggling networks to help them.
In 2019, Albania became the first non-EU member country to have officers of the bloc’s border agency Frontex to manage its borders in the south and east, which migrants usually cross, and fight cross-border crime.
Last month, Albania ratified a migration deal with Italy under which Rome will build migrant processing centres in the Balkan country. [Reuters, AP]
