A path towards freedom: the new route to Europe for desperate Chinese migrants

Zhang

arrived in Bosnia in April with two young children in tow.

He and his children were apprehended four times as they tried to cross into Europe .

Zhang is one of a small but growing number of Chinese people who are travelling to the Balkans with the hope of getting into the EU by whatever means necessary.

In 2023 , 148 Chinese people were caught trying to cross the border into Croatia , according to the majority of Bosnia .

In 2021 , three Chinese people were admitted to Bosnia and Herzegovina in this way.

In 2023 , it was 260 . In recent years , the surging numbers of Chinese people trying to cross into the US via the treacherous southern border has become a political talking point in Washington .

Many ordinary Chinese occasionally feel the rough end of the government’s tight control over public speech.

In 2023 , there were 137,143 asylum seekers from China , according to the UN ’s refugee agency.

That is more than five times the number registered a decade earlier .

In March alone, the number of Chinese nationals encountered by US border police increased by 8,500% .