Bulgaria Thwarts Two Attempts to Smuggle Some 90 Migrants from Turkey

Bulgarian police have prevented the trafficking of about 90 illegal migrants in two separate incidents near Tsarevo, close to the border with Turkey, the Sofia-based news daily 24 Chasa reported on Thursday.

Forty-one migrants from Syria including women and children were found packed in a minivan driven by a Bulgarian man from the city of Burgas late on Wednesday.

Shortly after that police stopped another minivan nearby, also driven by a Bulgarian man. In the back of the vehicle they discovered 48 Syrian migrants, including infants. All migrants were in a very serious health condition, according to 24 Chasa.

In both cases the migrants have been discovered nearly suffocated.

The court in Tsarevo immediately opened criminal proceedings against the two minibus drivers who pleaded guilty.

On Thursday evening, each of them was issued a suspended sentence of a year-and-a-half imprisonment with a four-year probation period, and a BGN 1,500 fine. The two minibuses were confiscated.