Funds Raised to Rebury Refugees Killed in Bulgaria

An online fundraising campaign, posted on the goFundme platform, has collected over 9000 pounds out of 15,000 needed to cover the repatriation of the bodies of six Afghan citizens who lost their lives in a car crash in June near the southern Bulgarian city of Pazardjik.

The organizers of the campaign say the bodies have remained in the hospital in Pazardjik for over a month, as they have not yet been reclaimed or repatriated to Afghanistan.

"Their families are too poor - unable to pay for the cargo to repatriate those dead bodies to Afghanistan," the fundraisers say.

Nine migrants - three Pakistanis and six Afghans - and their 16-year-old Bulgarian driver died in an accident after the driver lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree tree on the highway connecting Sofia with Burgas on the Black Sea. Eight other migrants were injured.

The prosecution in Pazardjik has pressed charges against two Bulgarians and one Afghan citizen suspected of smuggling the migrants.

Vassil Valchev, director of Pazardjik hospital, confirmed to BIRN that the bodies of the six Afghan migrants remain in a mortuary refrigerator.

The bodies of the Pakistani citizens have been recognized and will be transported to Islamabad next Tuesday with the assistance of the Pakistan embassy.

Valchev added that one of the Afghans has also been recognized and his body is expected to be taken from the hospital.

Bodies of foreign citizens have to be identified before being transported back home to be buried by their families. The expenses for the transportation are covered either by the diplomatic representation of the country of origin of the deceased, or by the family.

BIRN asked the Afghan embassy in Sofia to clarify whether it had taken...