Migrants said to be from Afghanistan detained in Bourgas, Sofia
Fifteen migrants said to be from Afghanistan were detained in Bulgaria’s Black Sea region of Bourgas after an incident in which the driver of the vehicle in which they were travelling tried to outrun police and collided with a police car.
The incident took place on October 15 near the junction with the road to the village of Debelt, the Interior Ministry said.
Gendarmerie officers saw three cars approaching at high speed. They signalled the cars to stop but the signal was ignored.
A police squad blocked a street in the direction in which the car was seeking to escape. The driver swerved sharply to the left, in the path of the police car, which was slightly damaged but there were no injuries, the ministry said.
Eight foreign nationals were in the car. The driver escaped.
Minutes later, police stopped the second car, which was driven by a 33-year-old man from the Bulgarian town of Chirpan. There were seven foreign nationals in it. The man from Chirpan was arrested and faces people-trafficking charges.
The driver of the third car evaded the police barrier and continued on towards Bourgas city centre. This car was being sought, the statement said.
The foreign nationals, from Afghanistan, were transferred to a migrant centre, the Interior Ministry said.
On October 16, police in Bulgaria’s capital city Sofia said that 80 illegal migrants had been detained in a police operation the night before. All those detained were from Afghanistan, according to the police statement.
Those detained had no identity documents. They were taken into custody in various parts of Sofia.
They were to be questioned and then would be distributed among various refugee accommodation centres of the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for Refugees, the Sofia directorate of the Interior Ministry said.
(Photo: Bart Groenhuizen/sxc.hu)
