On May 4, 2026, Croatian police acting on a tip-off discovered 19 migrants near the village of Donje Prilisce, 70 kilometres southwest of Zagreb and close to the Slovenian border. Four were dead. Two more were in serious condition and transported to hospital. The remaining 13 were taken to a nearby asylum centre. The group had been transported by truck in what survivors described as “inhumane conditions” before an unknown smuggler driving a cargo vehicle dropped them near the border and fled. No cause of death has been confirmed as investigations and post-mortems are underway. The nationalities of the victims have not been disclosed. The incident is the latest in a string of deadly episodes along Croatia’s borders, as the Balkan migration route continues to funnel tens of thousands of people each year through terrain that criminal trafficking networks exploit with near-total impunity.
Police Were Alerted by a Tip-Off and Found the Group Abandoned Near the Slovene Border
Croatian police received a tip-off on Sunday about a large group of migrants near the town of Karlovac and moved to investigate. What they found near the village of Donje Prilisce was a group of 19 people in acute distress, 4 of whom were already dead. The survivors reported that they had been transported in a cargo vehicle under conditions they described to police as inhumane, a word that in the context of migrant smuggling typically covers extreme overcrowding, heat, lack of ventilation, water deprivation, and physical confinement for extended periods.
The driver of the cargo vehicle did not remain at the scene. According to Croatian police, an unknown smuggler had dropped the group near the Slovenian border and left. The smuggler has not been identified or apprehended. The cause of the four deaths has not been established, and Croatian authorities have stated that further investigations and post-mortems will be conducted to determine both the cause of death and the identities of those who died. No nationalities have been released.
The Balkan Route Has Killed Over 400 People Since 2014 and Saw 12,500 Crossings in 2025
Croatia sits at a critical junction of the Western Balkan migration route, one of the primary corridors through which migrants from Asia and the Middle East attempt to reach the European Union. The route typically runs from Turkey through Greece, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, before crossing into Croatia and then into Slovenia and Austria. Croatia’s EU membership since 2013 and its entry into the Schengen zone in January 2023 have made its borders among the most closely monitored entry points into the bloc, but that monitoring has not eliminated the deadly smuggling networks that operate alongside the official crossings.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, more than 400 people have been reported dead or missing while attempting this passage since 2014. Those numbers almost certainly undercount the actual toll, as deaths in remote terrain often go undetected and unrecorded. More than 12,500 people used the Balkan route in 2025, according to Frontex data. The migrants who do not make the crossing and are not found alive simply disappear into the statistical gap between the numbers who attempt the route and those documented on either side of it.
Croatia Has a Recent Pattern of Migrant Deaths and Rescues on the Same Stretch of Border
The Karlovac incident is not an isolated event on this stretch of border. Last month, Croatian police rescued 30 people from a marsh on the same Croatia-Slovenia border, a rescue that reflected both the desperation of the crossing and the increasingly dangerous terrain migrants are forced into by stricter border enforcement. Earlier in 2026, a Chinese man died after a migrant boat capsized while crossing a river from Bosnia into Croatia, a separate corridor on the same broader route.
Human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch have documented Croatia’s border practices in detail, finding that pushbacks and collective expulsions from Croatia to Bosnia are routine and have been accompanied in documented cases by physical violence, confiscation of phones and personal property, and denial of the right to claim asylum. The EU has contributed substantial funds to Croatian border management while, according to HRW, failing to secure meaningful guarantees that those practices comply with EU law or international human rights obligations.
Criminal Gangs from the Western Balkans Run the Trafficking Networks That Exploit This Route
The unknown smuggler who dropped 19 people near Donje Prilisce and left them to die is not an isolated actor. Criminal gangs from across the Western Balkans are systematically involved in human trafficking of migrants from Asia and the Middle East along this corridor, coordinating transportation, logistics, and payment collection across multiple national borders. The business model of these networks is built on the vulnerability of people who have no legal pathway into the EU and who are willing to pay substantial sums for a crossing that may kill them.
The cargo truck as a transport method is particularly dangerous. Migrants concealed in the cargo holds of trucks have no access to air, water, or help if conditions deteriorate. Drivers have strong incentives to abandon their cargo at the first sign of police activity or border checks rather than risk arrest. The combination of sealed compartments, physical stress, heat, dehydration, and the shock of sudden abandonment in an unfamiliar location has killed people on this route and on similar routes across Europe.
Conclusion
Four people died near Donje Prilisce on a Monday morning in May, transported in a truck by a driver who has not been named, to a border that they did not cross, for reasons that will take weeks to establish through post-mortems. They join a count of more than 400 people that the IOM has documented as dead or missing on the Balkan route since 2014, in a corridor that 12,500 people attempted in 2025 alone. The smuggler fled. The investigation is underway. The route remains open.
