Bulgarian police intercept 45 trying to cross border into Serbia
Bulgarian Border Police detained 45 foreigners attempting to illegally cross the Bulgarian – Serbian border in the past day, the Interior Ministry said on July 19.
The Interior Ministry statement came a day after it emerged that the Serbian government had decided to set up joint police and military teams to act against illegal migration.
The task of the police and military forces will be to prevent the illegal entry of migrants from the Republic of Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia, as well as to bring to justice the human traffickers in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, the Serbian government said after a special meeting on July 17.
Serbian government officials have accused Bulgaria of failing to adequately prevent illegal border crossings.
Since the beginning of the wave of refugees and migrants into Europe, a route has been via Bulgaria, crossing from the border with Turkey and westwards over the Serbian border.
The 45 detained were said to include citizens of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Some of those detained had registration cards issued by Bulgaria’s State Agency for Refugees. They were issued warnings and moved out of the border area. Others had been sent to the Busmantsi centre for temporary accommodation of foreigners, the Interior Ministry said.
In the same statement, Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said that over the past day, Bulgarian Border Police headquartered at Elhovo had prevented a total of 10 attempts by 157 people to illegally cross the Bulgarian – Turkish border.
