The vehicle was parked near the village of Lokorsko, about 25 kilometers from this capital, and the survivors said that they were abandoned by human traffickers.

The Emergency Medical Relief Service reported that the rest of the migrants were taken to hospitals and 14 of them are reported in a critical condition.

Clandestine migration has increased in Bulgaria this past year despite the measures taken at the borders.

This tragedy is reminiscent of similar cases in the United Kingdom and Austria, where dozens of corpses were found in abandoned refrigerated trucks.

Bulgaria is part of the route used by migrants to travel to more developed countries in Western Europe, where they seek better living conditions than in their nations of origin, often affected by wars and economic crises.

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