SOFIA: Police in Bulgaria have recovered the bodies of 18 migrants who are believed to have suffocated in an abandoned truck, media in Sofia reported on Friday.
The migrants, thought to be from Afghanistan, were found near the western village of Lokorsko on Friday after someone alerted police to the unattended vehicle, according to Bulgarian state radio.
Around 40 migrants were travelling in the truck with Bulgarian registration plates. Eleven survivors were taken to three hospitals in the capital, Health Minister Assen Medjidiev said.
The people apparently had to hold out for a long time without water and food before being rescued, he added.
It was initially unclear how long the group had been travelling in the truck. There had been no traffic accident, the Interior Ministry said.
SEA RESCUE
Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) landed 48 migrants picked up off the Libyan coast at the Italian port of Ancona on Friday following a voyage lasting several days, the private aid organisation reported.
The 48 migrants, including nine minors, were picked up on Monday after their boat got into difficulties and taken aboard the Geo Barents.
The Italian authorities ordered the vessel to proceed to Ancona on the Adriatic coast well to the north of where the rescue took place.
On Tuesday, the French aid organization SOS Méditerranée rescued 84migrants, including 58 unaccompanied minors, in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea.
Its vessel, the Ocean Viking, was instructed to sail to Ravenna on the Adriatic coast even further north than Ancona, where it is expected to dock over the weekend.
Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni's right-wing government, which took power in October, decided on legislation in December aimed at restricting the actions of see rescuers. The legislation was passed by the lower chamber of parliament on Wednesday.
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk expressed criticism of the Italian government's plans on Thursday. The new law was the wrong way to deal with the humanitarian crisis, as it obstructed rescue operations and could lead to more deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, he wrote. -- dpa
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