Bulgaria... Authorities Seize Truck Carrying 80 Migrants Near Sofia

Bulgarian authorities have seized a truck carrying 80 illegal migrants on the Thracian highway, 8 km from the capital Sofia, according to Bulgarian National Radio. The police are continuing to identify the refugees and are searching for the truck driver who fled the scene. Earlier, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov announced a 57% increase in illegal immigration through Bulgaria during the summer months compared to the same period last year, with about a thousand people attempting to cross the border into Bulgaria illegally from Turkey. In February, authorities found a truck containing the bodies of 18 migrants about twenty kilometers from Sofia. Bulgaria has recently seen a rise in the number of clandestine migrants, despite the barbed wire along its 234 km border with Turkey.