In a case described as the word of its kind, the director of Bulgaria’s National Investigation Service confirmed the return to Kabul of 18 Afghan migrants who had been crammed into a secret compartment under a freight of lumber on the back of a lorry and abandoned by a roadside in February.
Seven people have been detained in connection to the deaths.
Afghanistan paid for the repatriation of the bodies. Zia Ahmad Takal, the Taliban ministry’s deputy spokesman in Kabul, blamed the Bulgarian legal process for their delayed return and the „cruel banking restrictions” imposed on Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. He urged Afghans not to risk their lives on illegal smuggling routes.
Afghans have been one of the main nationalities reported as having irregularly crossed the EU’s external border and applied for international protection on a Member State’s territory. They most often use the Eastern Mediterranean route, leading through Turkey to Greece – but then have to pass out of Schengen again to reach West Europe via Bulgaria and Romania. A record increase in the inflow of Afghans was noted during the refugee and migration-management crisis in 2015 when the number of cases exceeded 200,000.
Afghanistan is also one of the main countries of origin for successful, legal, asylum seekers in Europe.
