What happened: In the village of Vaksince, a house was detected, where captured migrants are being
held. A large number of people were held in several small, but overcrowded rooms. They weren’t able
to escape, due to the armed people that were securing the premises. A video footage was released,
where one can notice how the “guards” beat the migrants. The migrants were forced to pay for their
freedom, after which they were allowed to continue towards Serbia by foot.
Date, time and location of the incident: Unspecifi ed period in May and June, village of Vaksince near
Kumanovo.
Source of information: Channel 4 media, United Kingdom.
Victim(s) involved: Large number of migrants.
Type of the crime(s): Abduction (Art.141 CCRM), Violence (Art 386 CCRM), Bodily harm (Art. 130).
Perpetrator(s): Unknown large group of perpetrators.
Brief description of incident with bias indicators: In this incident, the bias motive is the ethnic origin,
citizenship or language, and the bias indicators are:
1. Difference in ethnic background– the ethnic background of the perpetrators and the victims differ;
the victims are members of a group (migrants of foreign descent) that is overwhelmingly outnumbered
by members of another group (Macedonian and Albanian population) in the area where the incident
occurred;
2. Pattern of previous incidents – this incident is the latest of a growing trend of bias motivated violence
against migrants.
Status of the case: Criminal charges submitted.
Response of local authorities: Answering upon a Request for information of public character, the
Ministry of Interior Affairs (MOI) answered that they have submitted criminal charges against four
suspects for the act of Smuggling migrants (Art 418-b CCRM).
Impact on the victim(s) and the community: This incident puts into question the safety of migrants
entering and passing through the country.
