Around 1,000 illegal migrants have been discovered on Serbia's border crossings with EU countries since the beginning of 2019.

Hiding in truck trailers, migrants try to get hold of western European countries and in the last three days alone, 14 people, mostly Afghans, were caught while trying to illegally cross the border, the Vojvodina Radio-Television (RTV) said on Wednesday.

Migrants board trucks as stow-aways and it is assumed that in doing so they are helped by other migrants or people smugglers.

The head of the European Union Delegation in Serbia, Sem Fabrizi, has acknowledged Serbia’s border police efforts to prevent illegal migrations, saying that progress had been made in fighting that phenomenon and stressing that members of border police and customs officers had undergone a number of training courses, which had strengthened their capacity to deal with illegal migrations.

According to the Commission for Refugees, the number of migrants in Serbia decreased during the summer, with around 2,800 staying in reception centres.