Night train kills 14 migrants sleeping on Macedonia tracks

VELES, Macedonia — A group of migrants trying to reach European opportunity via what’s billed by smugglers as a “safe” route — trekking along train tracks through the Balkans — was hit by an overnight train in a remote river gorge in Macedonia, killing 14.

The deaths of the undocumented migrants from Africa and Asia underscore how, even as tens of thousands risk drowning in the Mediterranean to reach European shores, many others gamble with their lives by taking perilous overland journeys to reach Hungary, a popular back door to the 28-nation European Union.

Railway officials said many of those killed Thursday night had stopped to rest after an exhausting hourslong hike and were sleeping on the tracks when the train plowed into them.

The overland route from Greece through Macedonia and Serbia has soared in popularity over the past two years as migrants seek a less dangerous path than the sea crossing from North Africa to Italy.

Trains killed 40 migrants last year, usually in groups of one or two, compared to the more than 1,300 lives lost in the Mediterranean over the past three weeks alone — a horrifying statistic that has put 2015 on track to be the deadliest year ever for the sea crossing.

Thursday’s accident occurred on a narrow stretch of tracks sandwiched between the Vardar River and a steep slope. The train’s engineer spotted a group of about 100 migrants on the tracks in the dark, 100 yards ahead.

Authorities said the 14 dead appeared to be mostly Somalis and Afghans in their 20s.

Meanwhile, a judge in Sicily on Friday confirmed the arrest warrants against the suspected captain and crew member of the smuggling boat that capsized in the Mediterranean’s worst ever migrant disaster.

Mohammad Ali Malek, 27, from Tunisia and suspected crew mate Mahmud Bikhit, 25, of Syria, appeared in a Catania court and were ordered returned to jail.

Prosecutors have accused Mr. Malek of inadvertently ramming the overloaded fishing boat into the cargo ship that had come to its rescue, destabilizing it. The boat eventually flipped after migrants rushed to one side trying to get off. Only 28 survived and as many as 800 people are feared dead.