Six arrested after 18 people found dead in truck in Bulgaria

• Six Bulgarians have been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
• Involvement in organized crime, and people smuggling.
• For the discovery of 18 Afghan migrants and refugees dead in Bulgaria.

Within a truck that had been left on a gravel road close to the capital Sofia, 18 Afghan migrants and refugees were discovered dead in Bulgaria.

According to the prosecution, the truck was abandoned close to the Lokorsko village after the driver and his friend discovered that several of the 52 persons inside its concealed compartments, which were sealed off with foil, were dizzy and others had already passed away.

As Bulgaria struggles to deal with an increase in unauthorized border crossings, the Friday discovery was the country’s bloodiest occurrence associated with people smuggling.

Initial investigations revealed that the truck was carrying Afghans who were travelling to Western Europe via Serbia after arriving from Turkey.

The accused kingpin of the smuggling group was among the six Bulgarians charged in the investigation, according to Hristo Krastev, a spokeswoman for the Sofia Public Prosecutor’s Office.

If found guilty on the counts of involuntary manslaughter, involvement in organized crime, and people smuggling, they could spend up to 15 years in jail.

Two other suspects who had been detained are not anticipated to face charges, while one suspect is still at large and was indicted in absentia.

According to investigators, the truck’s drivers heard loud noises and knocks coming from the back but didn’t stop until they saw the dead victims before running away, according to deputy attorney general Borislav Sarafov.

“The people transported were curled up and pushed against each other like in a tin can … They died slowly and painfully for 30 to 60 minutes. It is an extraordinary human tragedy,” Sarafov told reporters.

Some of the 34 people who were rescued remained in hospital, some for carbon monoxide poisoning from inhaling exhaust pipe gases.

The victims, believed to be aged between 13 to 35, had paid up to 7,000 euros ($7,500) each to the smugglers, Sarafov said.

“It was out of greed that the smugglers carried 52 people. They had previously transported between 25 and 35 people at a time, at least twice a month,” he said.

The hiding places were lined with aluminum foil to make the migrants’ presence undetectable to thermal cameras, he added.

Bulgaria, an EU member that serves as a gateway for many refugees and migrants hoping to enter the bloc, has been trying to tighten security to stop a rising number of people seeking to cross via its southern border with Turkey.

The Balkan nation has also faced mounting accusations of abuses by security forces trying to stop people from entering, with asylum seekers saying they have been pushed back, locked up, stripped and beaten.

Bulgaria has denied the allegations.

In 2015, three Bulgarian truck drivers were arrested and later charged with the deaths of 71 migrants found dead beside an Austrian motorway.

39 remains were discovered by British police in a refrigerated container that had been transported to England in October 2019.

According to police, all of the victims, whose ages ranged from 15 to 44, were from underdeveloped villages in Vietnam. It is thought that they paid people smugglers to take them on a perilous journey to countries where they could enjoy better lives.

According to the police, they overheated in an enclosed space and perished from a lack of oxygen. The vehicle that was found near the town of Grays, east of London, had taken a boat from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to England.

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