Along the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the EU and Schengen member state Croatia, an Afghan gang is reportedly operating with brutal violence against migrants and asylum seekers. The group, whose members hold residence permits from countries such as Italy and Germany, appears to have specialized in the abduction, abuse, and extortion of migrants traveling along the so-called Balkan route. Often targeting exhausted individuals in remote and difficult-to-access border regions, the gang captures them, subjects them to torture, and then demands ransom payments from their families. These serious allegations stem from a four-week investigation conducted by reporters from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN), supported by video and photo evidence, eyewitness testimonies, and confirmations from the Bosnian police.
According to victim testimonies, the Afghan-led group operating in Bosnia and Herzegovina has developed a ruthless three-tier business model. First, they offer illegal crossings into Croatia for high fees. Second, they intercept migrants who attempt the crossing on their own without paying, abducting and torturing them instead. The gang records the abuse using the victims’ own mobile phones and sends the footage to relatives along with ransom demands, which vary depending on the perceived wealth of the families.
Particularly cynical are cases in which victims fall prey to the group twice. Some migrants reported paying for the initial smuggling into Croatia, only to be intercepted by Croatian police and forcibly pushed back into Bosnia. Once back, they encountered the same criminals—now not as clients, but as new kidnapping targets.
BIRN journalists, who spent over a month investigating in the region, say they reviewed extensive visual documentation of the abuse. Some of this material has been published online. One especially disturbing video shows several young men lying shirtless on the ground. A perpetrator slashes their backs with a knife, then stomps on them with combat boots and kicks some of them in the head.
The victims are believed to be from the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir. Their goal was to reach Trieste in northern Italy via Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Instead, they were ambushed in the sparsely populated northwestern region of Bosnia. According to BIRN, the gang demanded €400 per tortured victim. Once their families paid the ransom, the men were released and eventually made it to Trieste.
However, €400 is at the lower end of the amounts extorted. According to the Bosnian police, ransom demands can reach up to €6,000 per person, depending on the assumed financial background of the victim’s family. Turkish nationals, for instance, are said to be charged higher sums than South Asians. The gang reportedly has informants stationed in refugee camps who help identify and target migrants attempting to cross the border independently.
The police department in the Una-Sana Canton, the northwestern Bosnian region bordering Croatia, confirmed the existence of the gang to BIRN. A police spokesperson stated that the group is highly organized and specifically targets individuals believed to come from families abroad with access to funds. “They overpower, bind, beat, and threaten the victims, forcing them to contact their families and tell them they must pay a ransom or something bad will happen,” the spokesperson said.
The money is primarily transferred to accounts in Turkey, although police have also tracked payments to bank accounts in Switzerland and the Netherlands. “It is a very well-established system,” the spokesperson added. And an extremely profitable one: estimates suggest that several thousand people have already fallen victim to such abductions. One account linked to the gang reportedly received €70,000 in transfers.
While law enforcement successes are rare, there have been isolated breakthroughs. In one case, two perpetrators were identified, tried, and sentenced to 22 months in prison by a Bosnian court.
According to BIRN, most members of the gang are Afghan nationals who have been granted legal protection in European countries. Two of the suspects were granted full refugee status in Italy, and two others received subsidiary protection. Another alleged member reportedly holds a valid German residence permit. This suggests that the gang is not only exploiting weak spots along the EU’s external borders but is also able to move freely within Europe using official documentation issued by EU member states.
