Smugglers who help take migrants across the mountains from Bulgaria into Serbia are allegedly being assisted by Bulgarian police.

It comes as EU police have been deployed to Serbia to help stop the flow of migrants into Europe.

One of the most common routes now is through Turkey and into Bulgaria - which is in the EU.

But Bulgaria is not an EU Schengen country, which means there is no free movement on to northern Europe.

So migrants are using smugglers to take them to the lengthy border between Bulgaria and Serbia.


They walk over the treacherous mountains out of Europe and into Serbia themselves then get picked up by smugglers who take them on to the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Image: Azad Ali claims police are helping smugglers

Azad Ali and his family from Iraq filmed their walk across the top of the mountains. He claims Bulgarian police are helping smugglers.

He said: "We were in the mountains for three days and three nights and for two days had no food or water because the smuggler left us in the mountains.

"My kids nearly froze - their hands got black. So it was a horrible time for us. After the third day we crossed the road and a guy came with a taxi driver to take us to Belgrade."

Image: Mr Ali and his family filmed their walk across the top of the mountains from Bulgaria to Serbia

He said: "Nobody can cross the mountains without the help of the smugglers, those people are working with the help of Bulgarian police. I saw a policeman who lifted the boot of the car and he saw migrants in the car."

Stanojevic Bratislav of the Serb border police told us the most common way migrants get across the mountains is to be taken to the border on the Bulgarian side then walk across the top themselves before being met by more smugglers on the Serb side who will take them on their journey.

He said: "Usually 99% of the time this is the modus operandi. But as soon as they are discovered they find new ways of smuggling.

Image: Serbian police surveillance look for migrants

"The latest one is that they park a vehicle in front of a restaurant for example somewhere by the road with the keys left in the car and the migrants will drive themselves."

No migrant wants to get stopped in the mountains because it's evidence they came from Bulgaria and could lead to them being deported.

As the heavy winter snow begins to melt and with spring round the corner the Serbian authorities are gearing up for a new influx of migrants to try to make the crossing.

And their efforts have been boosted by police officers from EU countries including Austria, France, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic.

Image: In June 2016, more than 50 migrants jumped out of bushes to be picked up in a bus

We joined Serb army and Serb and Austrian police patrols on the Serbian side of the border.

Serb border police are also using thermal imaging equipment which can detect body heat in human beings up to 10km (six miles) away.

They showed us footage they had filmed of migrants trying to get over the mountains.

In one video from June 2016, we saw more than 50 migrants jumping out of the bushes to be picked up in a waiting bus.

Image: In December 2014, migrants were chased by a police patrol and detained in Dimitrovgrad

In another, from November last year, migrants were waiting at a petrol station to be picked up by smugglers in two vehicles.

In a third video from December 2014 we saw a guide escorting migrants into the town of Dimitrovgrad where they would be met by smugglers.

After being spotted on the thermal imaging cameras they were chased by a police patrol and detained.

At several nearby camps we found migrants who had made the journey.

Image: Soldiers on patrol in Serbia

Abdul Kadri from Afghanistan said he was pushed back twice by Serb forces before making it - others said they had tried as many as 10 times.

Once in Serbia the migrants try to get into Europe proper via Hungary.

But the Hungarian border is closed and the Hungarians are only allowing around 10 people per day to cross, which means Serbia has become a bottleneck in this migration crisis.