On Friday evening, Bulgaria’s Ministry of the Interior reported that 18 people have been found dead in a truck two miles outside the country’s capital, Sofia.
“According to the first information, the truck illegally transported about 40 migrants hidden under some kind of timber. According to what we know so far, 18 of them are dead,” the ministry states in a press release.
Traffickers fled
Some of those who were still alive were taken to hospital. At the same time, authorities announce that the suspected human traffickers who drove the truck fled the scene and are now wanted.
Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev says most of the survivors were in very poor condition when they were found.
– They were short of oxygen, their clothes were wet, they were freezing and they obviously hadn’t eaten for several days, he says in a statement.
Refugee fence against Turkey
Media in Bulgaria report that the migrants in the truck were from Afghanistan.
Bulgaria has recently had an increasing problem with people trying to cross the border illegally. Among other things, a fence that almost stretches along the entire border with Turkey has been set up.