Kabul: According to a spokesman for the Taliban government's Foreign Ministry, the bodies of 18 Afghan migrants who perished while being smuggled into Bulgaria were sent back to Kabul on Wednesday.

In February, Bulgarian authorities found the bodies in a hidden compartment beneath a load of timber in the back of a truck that had been abandoned on a highway not far from Sofia.

They verified that all 18 had suffocated to death. Seven people were detained by Bulgarian authorities in relation to the deaths. The case was described as the deadliest migrant-related incident in Bulgaria by the director of the National Investigation Service.

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The migrants died slowly and painfully because they were "pressed against each other like in a tin can," according to the director Borislav Sarafov. In his words, it was "an extraordinary human tragedy."

Zia Ahmad Takal, the ministry's deputy spokesman in Kabul, claimed that his government was responsible for paying for the bodies' return. He attributed their delayed return to the Bulgarian legal system and the "cruel banking restrictions" imposed on Afghanistan since the Taliban took control of the nation in August 2021 after US and NATO forces withdrew from the region.

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Takal stated that the families received their bodies back and he urged Afghans not to take risks with their lives by travelling on smuggling routes that are not legal.

34 additional Afghan migrants on the same truck managed to survive the incident, but they were frostbitten and dehydrated. To get to Western Europe, they had crossed into Bulgaria from Turkiye.

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They have outlawed girls' education past the sixth grade and banned women from using public spaces. The Taliban's actions have been condemned by the international community, further isolating the nation as it deals with an economic crisis and a drought threat.