Bulgaria, facing increased migration pressure on border with Turkey, mulling new action plan

Migration pressure on Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, mainly from refugees fleeing the violent conflict inSyria, has increased by 50 per cent in the past two months, Bulgarian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said on October 1 2012.

Tsvetanov said that the ministry’s strategy envisaged a revision of the action plan in the face of increased migration flow. Bulgaria and Turkey had discussed joint patrols and a new control centre at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint, he said.

He said that one of the measures being considered was the deployment of additional Border Police units.

According to Tsvetanov, the European Commission was considering whether the allocation of resources to zones where migration pressure was “enormous” could be strengthened.

As The Sofia Globe reported previously, Bulgarian border police arrested a total of 14 would-be illegal immigrants in the space of 24 hours on September 22 2012, the latest in a series of arrests in more than a month, mainly of people from Syria and other Middle Eastern or Asian states. Most of the arrests took place along Bulgaria’s border with Turkey.

(Photo: European Parliament)

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