site.btaTwo Illegal Immigrants Drown in Bulgarian Sector of Danube, Four More Missing

Two Illegal Immigrants Drown in Bulgarian Sector of Danube, Four More Missing

Rousse, on the Danube, September 13 (BTA) - Two illegal immigrants: a young man and a boy, drowned in the Bulgarian sector of the River Danube, near the Island of Dobrina (between Lom and Archar, Northwestern Bulgaria). Four more illegals are unaccounted for, said Commissioner Dimiter Chorbadjiev, Director of the Rousse Regional Border Police Directorate.

The incident occurred on the evening of September 8, when a group of ten Iraqis (as the survivors identified themselves), guided by human trafficker, tried to cross the river from Bulgaria into Romania by a boat.

Chorbadjiev said that on the evening of September 8 a fisherman heard loud shouts of people on the island. He and a friend went there and found four Iraqis: two men and two women. Border Police were alerted around 11:30 p.m. and rushed to the site in a patrol boat. The survivors, who were undocumented, said that one of the boats had capsized and six people: two boys, two girls and two young men, had fallen into the river. The search and rescue operation, which Romanian law enforcers joined as well, continued throughout the night and on the following day and was abandoned on the evening of September 9.

The Iraqis were unable to give a description of the two traffickers because they wore masks. When the boat sank, one of the traffickers boarded the other's boat and they escaped.

The body of a boy was found as far as 23 km downstream from the island on the morning of September 11, and the body of a young man was recovered in the afternoon. Divers continued to look for the missing four. The sunken boat has not been found, either.

Chorbadjiev said that the illegal migrants said the victims were their children, but did not behave in a way corroborating this. All leads are being pursued.

The survivors said they were travelling from Iraq to Germany. They paid the traffickers 10,000 US dollars per adult and 7,000 dollars per child.

The Commissioner recalled that illegal migrants last attempted to cross the Danube by boat a year and a half ago, in the area of Vidin. Three persons were apprehended then.