SOFIA, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian police have detained 26 illegal immigrants and three traffickers in the Iskar Gorge, some 40 km north of here, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday in a statement.

The police operation was held on Monday near the town of Svoge after receiving information on planned trafficking of illegal immigrants from a house in the Iskar Gorge to the western border of Bulgaria, the statement said.

The first batch of eight immigrants and the three traffickers, two Bulgarians and a foreigner with a humanitarian status, were arrested in a van and a car at the time of their departure, the statement said.

The other 18 immigrants, five of them minors, were arrested in a villa that served as a place of accommodation, the statement said.

The immigrants presented themselves as Iraqis of Kurdish origin, it said.

Bulgaria is located on a migrant route to Central and Western Europe. According to official data, the Ministry of Interior arrested 2,989 illegal immigrants in 2017.