Three children abandoned by migrant smugglers lost their lives in Strandzha, NGO alerts

Three children lost their lives in the Strandzha mountain (South-Eastern Bulgaria)—frozen, hungry, and abandoned by traffickers. All three boys were of Egyptian origin. The tragedy was reported by the "Mission Wings" Foundation, which criticized the authorities for slow and inadequate actions.

However, the police say that the deceased were men around 30 years old.

There is hope that the investigation will provide an objective answer to this question. A pre-trial investigation has been initiated and this is the reason why there is no detailed official information from the authorities about the case so far.

Regardless of whether the victims were children or adults, this is undoubtedly a significant human tragedy. The story, as we are going to tell it, we learned it from the "Mission Wings" Foundation.

It is a nightmare tale of six boys who crossed the Turkish-Bulgarian border, led by migrant smugglers along a dangerous route. Three of them perished, while three survived, saved by fear that made them turn back. The story gets even scarier - many more reports have been received from families who have no contact with their children and fear they may have lost their lives after crossing the Bulgarian border.

Volunteers from the foundation received distressing footage during the night of December 27-28. It showed the boys in agony but still alive. The first signal came at 00:52 AM, sent to contact numbers for people in distress who seek protection. The second alert came about three hours later, and the third just before 7:00 in the morning. Each message contained the boys' locations. The volunteers immediately reported the cases to the authorities.

"In the course of a few hours, six alerts were sent for the first case to the emergency number 112, which confirmed that the information had been passed on to the border patrols. Unfortunately no help was rendered and a little later the next night, the body was found by the rescue teams. This scenario repeated itself three times" explained Diana Dimova, Chairperson of the Board of "Mission Wings" Foundation.

International rescue teams headed to the indicated locations, but according to "Mission Wings," they were hindered by the border services. They arrived too late, only to confirm the boys' deaths. The bodies were found in the area of the Strandzha Nature Parks, cattered around the nearby villages.

"Unfortunately, I received more than 20 signals from different families in Egypt who have lost contact with their children. Three of them were from this incident. I just told them, and now I am about to meet the first family arriving to start the identification process," said Yahya Homsi, a mediator and translator at "Mission Wings."

The Border Police confirmed that bodies were found, but they claim the deceased were men around 30 years old. They declined to provide further details due to the ongoing pre-trial proceedings. However, the foundation is convinced that they are children and has even traced their relatives.

"It is certain that all three boys who lost their lives are between 15 and 17 years old and are from Egypt. This I can say. I have the identity documents, we are providing all this information to the investigating authorities," said Diana Dimova, chairwoman of the board of the "Mission Wings" Foundation.

The volunteers are calling for a full and objective investigation into the deaths to determine why these lives were lost. It is believed that the children died from freezing and exhaustion, having been abandoned by migrant smugllers.

"The smuggler tells them, 'You'll only walk for a little while,' but in reality, they walk for two to three days in temperatures of minus 10 or minus 15 degrees, and they run out of strength, food, and water," explained Yahya Homsi, a mediator and translator at "Mission Wings" Foundation.

For many people from third countries, Europe remains a dream. But in pursuit of that dream, some tragically lose their lives on foreign soil.

"The question that keeps spinning in my head is that these people pay migrant smugglers a lot of money to reach Europe. I've heard of sums like 4,000 or 5,000 euros. With that amount, they could find a legal way to enter Europe. Their dream was to reach Europe, but they arrived dead. It's horrifying," Yahya Homsi said.

The horror continues for the families of the deceased, who now face the task of identifying the bodies. For the third victim, a DNA test will confirm his identity.