Trafficked from Serbia: How birds from Guinea end up in European pet shops

Since the 1970s, trafficked people and drugs have flowed across the Balkans route, going into the European Union (EU) from countries like Serbia and Albania. When the EU banned the importation of wild birds in 2005, the illegal trade along the Balkans route gathered pace.

Bane Kilibarda, one of Serbia’s top bird traders, is a specialist in birds of prey. When Daily Maverick’s Serbian investigator called him up to ask if he imported birds from the West African country of Guinea, Kilibarda yelled that he would not speak to “fascists from the European Union”, and that “the west always blames Serbia for everything”.

Word had spread among Serbian bird traders that journalists were investigating the country’s role in the illegal global wildlife trade, estimated to be worth between $7-billion and $23-billion […]

Read more in our online feature for Daily Maverick (South Africa).

With Tristen Taylor, Nathalie Bertrams and Nemanja Rujević. Photo credit: Nathalie Bertrams.