BELGRADE, Aug 22, 2024 (AFP) - Serbian police were searching for some seven missing people Thursday after a boat carrying migrants toward Bosnia on the Drina River capsized, police said.

Serbia is one of the main transit countries on the so-called "Balkan route" on which migrants attempt to reach the European Union. It borders four EU nations.

Early on Thursday a boat with about 25 migrants on board capsized near the border town of Ljubovija in Serbia, according to information from those rescued, police said in a statement.

Police found 18 people on the riverbank, including three children, who managed to reach the shore, and rescuers were searching for the others.

"The border police in Ljubovija were informed by the Bosnian border authorities, as well as by a local resident, that during the night, a boat carrying irregular migrants capsized on the Drina River while attempting to cross from Serbia between the villages of Drlaca in the Ljubovija municipality and Orlice in the Zvornik municipality," Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said in the police statement.

More than a million people from Asia and Africa have crossed Serbia since the refugee crisis of 2015, according to the Serbian government.

The majority trying to cross in recent months come from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco and Pakistan, according to government data.

The number of migrants transiting through Serbia has dropped significantly over the years, and this year, police recorded 10,389 illegal entries in the first half of 2024, which is nearly 70 percent less than last year.

Serbian officials have attributed the drop to tighter cooperation with Austrian police and with Frontex, the EU's border management agency.

Many migrants use smugglers to enter Serbia from Bulgaria and North Macedonia and then try to enter EU members Hungary or Croatia.