Tag: Afghanistan

The Taliban‘s secret service has taken “direct control” of migrant trafficking gang operations just outside the European Union’s southern border with Serbia, according to a leaked Hungarian intelligence document.

The report, recently leaked to a Hungarian newspaper, explains how Vojvodina, the northernmost region of Serbia, has seen an uptick in gang violence in recent years as human trafficking organizations vie for control over the increasingly lucrative smuggling business in the area. It notes the almost daily occurrence of shootouts between trafficking gangs, which often spills over into violence directed towards both Serbian and Hungarian authorities, leaving the local population in a state of fear.

The report states that a large number of the gangs are led by Afghani nationals, which has made it easy for the Haqqani network, one of the Taliban’s most militant factions, to assume control of their operations and “use the enormous income coming from human trafficking as its own revenue, even to finance terrorism.”

The Hungarian government highlights how the Taliban’s extensive international networks enable its fighters to secure passports and travel to Serbia via Tajikistan and Russia, where they assist in up to 1,200 illegal border crossings every evening at a cost of €1000 ($1,070) per person.

“In the north of Serbia, near the Hungarian border, we have practically a de facto ‘state’ of immigrant bandits that nobody controls, except their criminal bosses… The situation is very serious—murders, rapes, and clashes between bands of migrants in the north of Serbia became a regular thing,” states Andrej Mitic, the International Secretary of the Serbian Movement Dveri party.

The Serbian authorities have attempted to clamp down on the network, arresting over 4,500 migrants in the area over the past two weeks. The police seized assault rifles, handguns, over 1,500 rounds of various calibres, and hundreds of foreign passports, among other things.