Bulgaria Gives 11-Month Jail Term to People Smuggler

A Bulgarian court has sentenced a people trafficker to 11 months in prison and a BGN 2,000 (EUR 1,000) fine for helping smuggle 54 migrants into Bulgaria from Turkey, the Chief Prosecutor’s office announced on Friday.

Police arrested Kalcho Iliev on Monday after they stopped for inspection an Iveco van he was driving and found the migrants, including six women and 16 children aged between 2 and 12, crammed into the back of the vehicle.

The court found Iliev guilty of assisting an yet unidentified people trafficker smuggle the migrants into Bulgaria across the border with Turkey. The sentence cannot be appealed, the chief prosecutor's office said in a statement.

More than 17,000 illegal migrants have been detained at Bulgaria’s borders or inside the country between 1 January and 3 September, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said on Friday. According to Interior Ministry figures, the largest number of people, who had entered the country illegally and then attempted to leave it, came from Afghanistan – 2,479, followed by citizens of Syria (1,942) and Iraq (1,572).

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