Bulgarian border police stopped a refrigerated truck illegally transporting 16 Iraqi migrants to Germany, detaining both the driver and the migrants.

The truck, registered in Latvia and driven by a Belarussian man, was stopped in Ruse, where a secret compartment was discovered in the trailer. The migrants were undocumented and in the process of obtaining refugee status. Bulgarian authorities apprehended 504 non-EU citizens in the first months of 2025, mostly at the border with Romania.