site.bta32 Migrants Intercepted on Bulgarian-Romanian Border

On January 30 and 31, Bulgarian and Romanian border police officers at Vidin/Kalafat prevented two attempts to smuggle a total of 32 migrants across the country's border, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

Foreign nationals from Syria and Iraq, including minors, were hidden in trucks driven by Turkish nationals.

In one case, 13 migrants were hidden in the trailer of the truck. Some of them had registration cards issued by the Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees, while others were without identity documents.

In a second incident, another 19 foreign nationals were travelling in a Turkish-plated truck.

The drivers of the vehicles have been pressed with charges and detained for up to 72 hours, while

the trucks have been seized.

Pre-trial proceedings have been opened for attempted illegal border crossing.

In the course of the investigation, it was established that one of the migrants, a 27-year-old Syrian, was convicted only a few days earlier for the same offence.

This is a new way of transporting illegal migrants and an attempt to move them from Bulgaria to Romania. The scheme is carried out with the participation of Turkish nationals - truck drivers who deliberately modify the construction of the locking mechanism of the loading compartment. In this way, when the migrants board, it opens without breaking the integrity of the customs seal. The final goal is to reach the countries of Western Europe. This method deceives border control officers into believing that the cargo hold has already been checked when crossing the EU external border.