Forty-three migrants found alive in van days after 18 died while hidden in truck

Police officers stand guard at the site where an abandoned truck was found last week containing the bodies of 18 migrants. Picture: AP Photo/ Valentina Petrova)

Forty-three migrants, including 10 children, have been found hidden in a van in Bulgaria, officials have said.

It comes days after authorities discovered  the bodies of 18 migrants hidden in a lumber truck.

The 43 appear to be in good health despite being squeezed into a tight space, prosecutor Natalia Nikolova said on Monday without giving the migrants’ nationalities.

Last week, the 18 migrants were found suffocated in a secret compartment under a load of lumber on an abandoned truck near Bulgaria’s capital Sofia.

Another 34 survived the ordeal but were dehydrated, wet and frostbitten.

All were Afghans who entered Bulgaria from Turkey hoping to reach western Europe, officials said.

Borislav Sarafov, director of Bulgaria’s National Investigation Service, called last week’s incident the country’s deadliest involving migrants.

He said the victims were “pressed against each other like in a tin can”, which had caused their slow and painful deaths, which he called “an extraordinary human tragedy”.

He said the migrants died 10 to 12 hours before the truck was found and that the smugglers had fled the scene after they noticed the deaths.

Bulgarian authorities have charged five suspects with involuntary manslaughter, participation in a criminal organisation and people trafficking.

They could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

The alleged ringleader is in police custody in Greece, where authorities have yet to decide on his extradition.

The suspects belong to an organised crime ring smuggling migrants from the border with Turkey to the Bulgaria-Serbia border, Mr Sarafov said.

Passengers paid €5,000 to €7,000 each, he said.

Bulgaria, a Balkan country of seven million and the poorest member of the European Union, is on a major route for migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan seeking to enter Europe from Turkey.

Most of them are using Bulgaria as a transit corridor on their way west.