Bulgarian taxi drivers cash in on "illegal migration"

Bulgarian taxi drivers have got into the people-trafficking business, charging between 200 and 300 leva (about 102 to 153 euro) to transport four or five people from the Turkish border to Sofia or from the Bulgarian capital to the Serbian border, it has been alleged.

Journalist Stefan Tashev told local Nova Televizia on September 3 that migrants arrived in Sofia by taxi from the Turkish border, then transferred to another taxi to the border to continue on their way via Serbia to Austria and Germany.

During an operation in Sofia on the night of September 2, conducted by police, the State Agency for National Security and the Migration Directorate, more than 130 people were detained when they could not show that they were residing in Bulgaria legally.

Among those questioned during the operation were taxi drivers, reports said.

Tashev said that the Interior Ministry should initiate an investigation into the “whole scheme” to transport people from one Bulgarian border to another.
  [sofiaglobe.com]
 3/9/15
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