![]() ![]() The arrested were handed 15 years of prison sentences for involuntary manslaughter and running a criminal trafficking organization. The bodies of suffocated Afghans were found in a vehicle transporting timber, where some 52 migrants were "packed like in a tin can" for several days. Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the country of "brutally" pushing back migrants with European border security force Frontex also involved in its borders.īulgarian police were harsher in the absence of Frontex officers, but the "dehumanizing" act continued in their presence as well, according to the migrant testimonies cited by HRW.īulgarian prosecutors had charged six people over the deaths of 18 Afghan migrants in a similar incident earlier this year in February. The influx is also fueled by the politics of its neighbour Turkey, according to Asylum Information Database (AIDA), with the number of asylum seekers almost doubling in 2022. The European Parliament wants to see both Bulgaria and Romania as part of the visa-free zone – a move that has been met with resistance from Austria in particular.īulgaria remains one of the few EU countries that are not in the Schengen area.Īlthough Bulgaria maintains a wire fence on its border with Turkey, it has seen a rise in migrants trying to cross the border ever since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August 2021. The incident comes on the back of talks for Bulgaria's possible accession to Schengen. Smugglers had "extraordinarily inventive" means of transport and routes to take the migrants into Central and Western Europe, the country's Interior Ministry said. ![]() ![]() Some 300 illegal migrants with irregular paperwork were also detained in the 48-hour-long mission. The operation was sparked after authorities found 40 migrants, including children, inside a tanker truck specifically modified to transport people. Bulgaria arrests alleged human smugglers in nationwide raidsįILE - a police officer guards a detained person during a police raid in Sofia, Bulgaria in 2018.īulgarian police arrested 15 alleged smugglers and detained hundreds of migrants following a nationwide raids. ![]()
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