Eighteen Afghan migrants were found dead in a truck in Bulgaria

New Delhi: Bulgarian authorities have arrested seven suspects concerning an abandoned truck in which eighteen people, believed to be all Afghan migrants, were found dead last weekend, news agencies reported.

The dead bodies of the migrants were found in a secret compartment below a load of lumber in the truck, which was left on a highway near Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia.

Borislav Sarafov, director of Bulgaria’s National Investigation Service, confirmed to AP news agency that all the victims had died of suffocation. He called the case the country’s deadliest involving smuggled migrants.

Thirty-four survivors in the truck, most of them in deplorable physical condition, Bulgarian Health Minister Assen Medzhidiev said.

All the passengers were originally from Afghanistan and had entered Bulgaria from Turkey while hoping to reach Western Europe, authorities said.

The suspected human smugglers had fled the scene after they noticed the deaths.

The seven suspects were detained at different locations across Bulgaria.

The investigation indicates the suspects belonged to organized human traffickers smuggling migrants from the border with Turkey to the Bulgaria-Serbia border, Sarafov said. Passengers paid 5,000-7,000 euros each, he said.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of seven million, is a transition country located on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan seeking to enter Europe from Turkey.