Bulgarian border police arrested five men for attempted people trafficking, a media statement from the Interior Ministry said.

The arrests took place at two different border crossings within one day.

In the early hours of June 16, a truck was stopped for a routine check-up at the Kapitan Andreevo border between Bulgaria and Turkey. Inside the van on the bed, border police found a man without documents who claimed to be Palestinian. Underneath the truck, police discovered another man, also without documents. He too claimed to be Palestinian.

Both the men and the driver of the truck, a 36-year-old Turkish citizen A.K., were placed under arrest in the southern Bulgarian town of Svilengrad.

Later in the day at the Danube bridge crossing at Bulgaria's border with Romania, police found a man hiding underneath freight in a truck, 45-year-old S.D. from Veliko Turnovo. The court had barred him from leaving the country because of heavy debts.

The man and the truck driver were under arrest in Rouse, the media statement said.