18 refugees were found dead in a truck in Bulgaria on Friday. According to initial findings, they suffocated, as Deputy Prosecutor General Borislav Sarafov told AFP. He spoke of the “deadliest incident involving migrants in Bulgaria”.
Local residents discovered the truck around 20 kilometers from the capital Sofia and alerted the police. According to officials, the truck was transporting 52 refugees who were hiding under piles of wood. According to the first official information, they came from Afghanistan.
The 18 fatalities died 10 to 12 hours before their bodies were recovered, Sarafov said. 34 survivors were taken to the hospital. Bulgarian Health Minister Asen Medjidiev said they were cold and soaked and “certainly hadn’t eaten for several days”.
According to Medjidiev, among the dead is a child believed to be six or seven years old. Sarafov, on the other hand, said the youngest victim was a teenager. The smugglers fled. Four Bulgarians were arrested as suspects.
The EU member country Bulgaria borders Turkey in the south. Recently, the number of people trying to cross the border into the EU has increased. Bulgaria has therefore stepped up controls along the 234-kilometer barbed wire fence that covers almost the entire border with Turkey.
According to the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, the border police prevented 164,000 attempts at “irregular border crossings” last year. In 2021, the number was 55,000. (AFP)
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