Eighteen migrants found dead in truck in Bulgaria

Police in Bulgaria on Friday discovered an abandoned truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants, who appeared to have suffocated to death inside a secret compartment under a load of lumber. According to initial information, the truck was carrying about 50 migrants and the survivors were taken to nearby hospitals for emergency treatment. The truck was found abandoned along a highway near the capital, Sofia.

The driver was not there, but police discovered the passengers in a secret compartment below the lumber the vehicle also was carrying. To prevent people from entering the country illegally, Bulgaria’s government erected a barbed-wire fence along its 259-kilometer border with Türkiye. But foreigners fleeing poverty or conflict in their home countries manage to enter with the help of local people smugglers.