Romania detains 36 illegal Afghan immigrants

Romanian and Hungarian border police on Friday said that they had stopped a truck carrying 36 Afghans seeking to illegally enter Western Europe, local media reported.

The Bulgarian driver of the vehicle had declared a transport of motor oil from Greece to Germany. The migrants were held and questioned by Romanian police, DPA reported.

Romania and Bulgaria had hoped to join the Schengen agreement and become a part of the 25-nation European border-free zone in March.

But their bid was hampered last month by Germany and France, which said that the two Balkan nations are not yet ready to become the zone's frontier toward Asia.