site.btaSofia Confirms Arrest of Three Bulgarians after 71 Migrants Are Found Dead in Truck in Austria

Sofia Confirms Arrest of Three Bulgarians after 71 Migrants Are Found Dead in Truck in Austria

Sofia, August 28 (BTA) - The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry on Friday confirmed earlier reports that three Bulgarian citizens were arrested in Hungary after a truck containing the dead bodies of 71 migrants was found on a highway in Austria.

The Bulgarian Embassy in Budapest is keeping in touch with all local authorities. The Foreign Ministry said more information will become available after the police complete their investigation.

Some sources reported different numbers of Bulgarian and other detainees. Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner and Austrian police officials told a news conference that two out of a total of three people arrested in Hungary in connection with the case are Bulgarian. One of them is a man of Lebanese origin holding a Bulgarian passport, who owns the abandoned truck, and the other Bulgarian was one of the two drivers of the truck. The other driver, also arrested, is Hungarian. The news conference was given in Eisenstadt, Eastern Austria, near the border with Hungary.

Hungarian police said those arrested were three Bulgarians and one Afghan citizen, the Reuters news agency reported, quoting a statement posted on the official website of the Hungarian police.

All sources seem to agree that this is a case of a Hungarian-Bulgarian criminal organization transporting refugees.