Eighteen migrants were found dead in an abandoned truck in Bulgaria, the country’s Interior Ministry reported Friday, which is facing an increase in the number of illegal border crossings.
In the vehicle there were “some 40 migrants illegally hiding under some wood,” the authorities revealed, and “eighteen of them died.”
Locals alerted police to the truck’s presence near the town of Lokorsko, 20 kilometers northeast of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. The migrants found alive were taken to the hospital.
A search operation is now underway for people smugglers who are believed to have driven the truck and fled, leading to what will be the deadliest migrant incident in Bulgaria.
The EU member country has tried to tighten security to prevent an increasing number of people from trying to cross the border and has intensified controls along the 234 kilometers of barbed wire that covers most of the border. with Turkey.
Bulgaria has been accused of abuses of migrants trying to enter the country through Turkey, with asylum seekers reporting being turned away, jailed, stripped and beaten.
Austria and the Netherlands blocked Sofia’s candidacy to join the Schengen area.
Source: TSF
