Police in Bulgaria found the bodies of 18 Afghan refugees, including of a child, inside a truck abandoned along a highway near Sofia on Friday.
According to Reuters, four people have been arrested.
The truck, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry said, was carrying about 40 people inside secret compartments below a load of timber.
“They have suffered from lack of oxygen, their clothes are wet, and they are freezing, and obviously haven’t eaten for days,” the Bulgarian Health Minister, Asen Medzhidiev, said. Adding that 34 people, including 5 children, were taken to hospitals in Sofia.
Bulgaria is situated on a major transit route for Afghan and Middle Eastern migrants seeking to enter Europe via Turkey. While very few choose to remain in Bulgaria, it is commonly used as a transit corridor for those enroute to western European countries.
