- 18 migrants found dead in truck in Bulgaria The vehicle was parked near the western Bulgarian village of Lokorsko, 20 kilometers from the capital Sofia.
- According to Bulgarian media reports, the people may have died of asphyxiation. A total of 52 people were hidden in the truck, it said.
- Police arrested four suspects.
According to the police, the people had been illegally smuggled from Turkey across the EU’s external border to Bulgaria and had stayed in a forest for two days. According to the authorities, they came from Afghanistan.
According to Health Minister Assen Mejidiev, the migrants apparently had to endure a long time without water and food. Eleven of them were injured from the truck and taken to the hospital for treatment. A total of 52 people were hidden in the truck parked 20 kilometers from the capital Sofia, it said. A child was among the dead.
The police launched a manhunt for the drivers of the truck with Bulgarian license plates, who the migrants said had fled. Four suspects were arrested, according to investigators. It was initially unclear how long the people had been in the truck. There was no traffic accident, the police only received a tip about an abandoned truck, the interior ministry said.
Bulgaria erected a barbed wire fence on the EU’s external border with Turkey in 2017. Migrants often cross this border illegally to avoid being registered at a border point in Bulgaria, and then usually travel on to Central and Western Europe.
Due to the reservations of several member states, Bulgaria has not yet been admitted to the Schengen area without border controls.