Two people detained for smuggling 23 migrants across Bulgaria

A man and a woman were detained in the Plovdiv village of Trud, central Bulgaria, after a chase on Saturday for transporting 23 illegal migrants from Afghanistan in an ambulance, Interior Ministry Regional Directorate Head in Plovdiv Vasil Kostadinov told reporters at a briefing on Sunday.

The man is 30 years old and has a criminal record - theft, possession of narcotics, driving under the influence of opiates, and the woman is 29 years old with a record of theft. Both are from Sofia.

The ambulance chase started on the Trakia motorway in the area of Stara Zagora in the direction of Sofia and continued in Plovdiv region. The vehicle was going with lights and sirens on. Its driver disobeyed the police, continued driving and got off the motorway in the direction of the village of Trud. They left the ambulance in the centre of the village and continued to flee on foot. After officers from two district police stations in Plovdiv units were mobilized, the two were caught within ten minutes, Kostadinov said. 

The ambulance carrying the migrants was from Sofia and was not a functioning special regime vehicle. 

The Plovdiv Regional Prosecution Office said on its website that it had charged the man and the woman with the crime of migrant smuggling on April 22 in the village of Trud. On April 22, they illegally assisted 23 foreigners, all men, three of them under 16, to cross the country in violation of the law. It was found that the migrants got in the ambulance in the region of Stara Zagora. They were supposed to reach Sofia and then Serbia. They entered Bulgaria from Turkiye.

The two offenders were detained for 72 hours by order of a prosecutor from the Plovdiv Regional Prosecution Office. The Afghan citizens were interrogated as witnesses and subsequently placed in a Migration Centre in the region of Plovdiv. They are in good health.

The investigation continues.