Bulgaria expects further 100 Frontex staff to aid in guarding Turkish border
Bulgaria expects a further 100 staff from European border agency Frontex to be involved in guarding its border with Turkey, Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova told the National Assembly during Question Time on September 9.
Buchvarova said that there was currently no indication that Turkey would withdraw from an agreement on the return of refugees.
She said that Bulgaria had requested money from the European Commission.
The main part of the aid would be received from Germany by September 17 and the rest by November, Buchvarova told Parliament.
Bulgaria’s borders were secured by a number of different systems as well as 13 boats and four helicopters, Buchvarova said.
She said that there had been discussions about setting up at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint a trilateral centre, including the participation of Turkey and Greece, for co-ordinating the guarding of the border.
Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s government said that Prime Minister Boiko Borissov had held telephone conversations with German chancellor Angela Merkel, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and Serbian prime minister Aleksandar Vucic, discussing the migrant crisis.
EU and Turkey need each other to solve problems and all countries should jointly undertake efforts to implement the agreements reached so far, Borissov said.
The Bulgarian Prime Minister has invited Orban to visit Bulgaria for talks before an EU summit on the refugee and migrant crisis to be held in Bratislava on September 16.
In his telephone conversation with Orban, Borissov said that Bulgaria would push for a “common European response and display of real solidarity between countries in Europe to resolve the problem of the migrant wave and adequate protection of the external EU borders”.
It was announced in August that Frontex was sending 100 staff to assist in guarding Bulgaria’s borders with Turkey and Serbia.
