Eighteen migrants were found dead in a truck this Friday, February 17 in Bulgaria, a Balkan country faced in recent months with an unprecedented influx since the 2015 migration crisis.
The police were informed by a villager of the presence of this abandoned vehicle near the village of Lokorsko, about twenty kilometers from Sofia, the capital.
According to the first elements provided by the government, the truck was illegally transporting 52 people "
hidden under bundles of wood
".
“We will find those who caused the death of 18 innocent people”
Originally from Afghanistan, they entered Bulgarian territory a few days ago after crossing the fence erected on the border with Turkey "
by means of a ladder
", Borislav Sarafov, Deputy Prosecutor General, told the press.
Among the 18 people who died, “
is a child aged between six and seven years old
”, according to a press release, while 34 people were hospitalized, including five children.
The survivors refuse at this stage to speak.
"
I can't say for sure what happened
," said Health Minister Assen Medjediev.
"
They lacked oxygen, were cold and soaked, they certainly hadn't eaten for several days
".
"
There is no doubt that we will find those who caused the death of 18 innocent people
", promised Borislav Sarafov, after the arrest of four suspects.
Migration pressure
As a gateway to the European Union (EU), Bulgaria saw an upsurge in illegal immigration to its territory last year, despite the presence of a 234 km barbed wire fence along the border with Turkey.
Three police officers were killed in 2022 when vehicles carrying illegal immigrants hit their car.
Read alsoSchengen enlargement: “The EU cannot continue to ignore the Balkans”
Rejected from the Schengen free movement area in December after already ten years of waiting due to a veto by Austria and the Netherlands, the country has intensified controls in recent months.
Sometimes with the use of brutal methods, according to testimonies recently collected by AFP, stories from NGOs or even reports from Frontex, the European Border Surveillance Agency.
The police themselves say they have prevented 164,000 attempted crossings in 2022, compared to 55,000 a year earlier.
Requests to strengthen the current fence
This poor Balkan country has asked the EU for two billion euros to modernize and strengthen the current fence, and several member states are advocating for such a solution.
Migration has returned to the top of the European agenda, with rising irregular arrivals and asylum claims in the bloc in 2022 putting some countries' reception capacities under pressure.
Already in October 2021, 12 countries had requested that the EU finance this type of wall, to respond to the arrival of migrants via Belarus.
This drama in Bulgaria echoes the discovery in 2019 of the bodies of 39 Vietnamese in a refrigerated truck near London.
Austria was hit by a similar tragedy in 2019. Police found an abandoned refrigerated truck on the side of a highway with 71 decomposing bodies of men, women and children on board.
In 2000, the bodies of 58 illegal Chinese immigrants were discovered in a Dutch lorry in the port of Dover, southeast England.
Two people survived.
Several similar but less deadly cases have been recorded in recent years, including in Italy, the Netherlands, Ireland and Croatia.
