Sat, Feb 11 2012

Bulgaria-Greece human smuggling route exposed

Wed, Oct 01 2008 11:53 CET

bySvetlana Guineva

1247 Views

Bulgarian border police uncovered a human trafficking route from Bulgaria to Greece on September 30 2008, Focus news agency reported.

A month earlier, in a joint operation with the Greek border police, Bulgarian authorities detained two Iraqi citizens. While the case unravelled, more people involved in the organisation and execution of the trafficking scheme emerged.

One 24-year-old Sudanese citizen has been detained along with his two assistants, both living in the village of Leshtarka near Kroumovgrad in sourthern Bulgaria. Their names have not been released.

Police described the system of smuggling as follows - people wanting to cross the Bulgaria-Greece border would pay one thousand euro a person to the Sudanese, who resides in Bulgaria as a foreigner with humanitarian status. After the fee is paid, he would contact one of his partners, a 32-year old man from Leshtarka, to arrange the time and date of when people about to be smuggled should be met.

When the potential immigrants arrive in Kurdjali, they were transported to the border in taxi-cabs. From there, the people were assisted to cross illegally to the other side.

Most trafficked people came from the Middle East countries, the news agency reported.

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