Three Migrant Children Die in Bulgaria: Did Authorities Let Them Freeze to Death?
Incidents | January 15, 2025, Wednesday // 09:28| views
In late December, three migrant teens died in Bulgaria after being abandoned in the forest near the border with Turkey, writes Radio Free Europe Bulgaria. The deaths, which were discovered by a group of volunteers, have raised serious questions about the response from local authorities. The teens, identified as Ahmad Alaouden (17), Ahmed Samra (15), and Seyfala Eibeltaji (15), were part of a group that crossed the border under the guidance of traffickers. They were left behind when the group moved on, and the children succumbed to the harsh conditions.
A volunteer group, including Simon, a French student, discovered the lifeless body of one of the children in Strandzha. Simon, part of a team that helps migrants in distress, recalled that they had called emergency services and immediately rushed to the location of the boy, using the coordinates provided. Despite their repeated attempts to assist, they were stopped by border police patrols and prevented from reaching the site. When they were finally able to return the following day, over 24 hours later, they found the boy already dead.
The volunteers had made several attempts to reach the children, starting with an initial phone call at 12:52 a.m. on December 27, which included a video showing a boy in critical condition. Despite providing the coordinates of the boy’s location to 112 emergency services, they received no effective help from the police. The border police stated that they did go to the location but found no one. However, the volunteers dispute this, claiming that the bodies were located exactly where they had indicated.
In the following days, the bodies of the other two children were found near the original coordinates. Volunteers reported signs that authorities had previously been on the scene, as fresh tracks from border police vehicles and dogs were found near the body of the first child. Despite these signs, the police made no effort to remove the body or assist.
This tragic case is not isolated. In 2024, the Mission Wings Foundation, which was involved in the case, reported other instances where unaccompanied migrant children were found in distress or dead. One such case involved a 16-year-old boy, whose body was found months after being reported as missing. The organization has raised concerns about how migrant deaths are handled by the authorities, claiming that despite receiving reports of distressed migrants, they often receive no response or help from the police.
The Ministry of the Interior’s responses to the case have been inconsistent. Initially, the Ministry denied receiving any reports on December 27, but later confirmed that they had received signals the following day. There were contradictions between the Ministry’s statements, and the police claim that they had visited the locations but found no migrants. The volunteers, however, insist that they were in close proximity to the children’s bodies when they arrived.
The case of the three children has highlighted the ongoing problem of migrant deaths along the Bulgarian border. According to international investigations, at least 93 people died in 2022 and 2023, with many more missing. Local organizations like Mission Wings have called for further investigation into the roles of both the traffickers who abandoned the children and the authorities who failed to intervene in time.
The heartbreaking task of informing the families about their children’s deaths falls to activists like Yahia Homsi, a mediator at Mission Wings. He explained how painful it is to contact families and break the news that their children have died in such circumstances. The authorities' initial claim that the deceased were adults in their 30s has since been debunked, but the story of their deaths should not end there, according to advocates who demand accountability from both the traffickers and the authorities.
Source: Radio Free Europe Bulgaria
Back