Bulgarian authorities detain 7 people after 18 migrants found dead in truck

Authorities in Bulgaria have detained seven people in connection with an abandoned truck in which 18 people believed to be migrants were found dead, police said Saturday.

The body was found on Friday in a secret chamber under a pile of wood in a truck, which was abandoned on a highway not far from the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Borislav Sarafov, director of Bulgaria’s National Investigation Service, confirmed that all the victims had died of suffocation. He called the case the country’s most dangerous case involving smuggled migrants.

Police also found 34 survivors in the truck, most of them in very bad physical condition, Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said.

All the passengers were originally from Afghanistan and had entered Bulgaria from Turkey hoping to reach Western Europe, authorities said.

Sarafov said the dead had been dead 10 to 12 hours before the truck was found and the smugglers had fled the scene after seeing the deaths.

The suspect belongs to organized crime

The seven suspects were detained in various locations in Bulgaria. Investigators are working to determine if the truck driver was among them.

The investigation showed the suspects belonged to an organized crime ring involved in smuggling migrants from the border with Turkey to the Bulgarian-Serbian border, Sarafov said. Passengers pay 5,000-7,000 euros ($7,200-10,000 Cdn), he said.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of 7 million people and the poorest member of the European Union, is located on the main route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan who want to enter Europe from Turkey. Very few stayed, and most used Bulgaria as a transit corridor to the west.

Bulgaria has erected a barbed wire fence along its 259 kilometer border with Turkey, but with the help of local traders, many migrants are still able to enter.