Bulgaria has detained more than 17 700 migrants illegally in country so far in 2016
From the start of 2016 until November 24, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry apprehended a total of 17 717 migrants who were attempting to enter, exit or reside in the country irregularly, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a regular report.
Coincidentally, the figure covers the period up to the date of the uprising at Bulgaria’s Harmanli refugee camp.
Of the total, 4520 have been apprehended on entry, 4808 on exit and 8389 inside the country, IOM said.
Most migrants, a total of 4050, apprehended on entry had been detected along the Bulgarian-Turkish border.
The main exit points for those apprehended during their attempt to leave Bulgaria were near the Serbian-Bulgarian border (12 603).
During period covered by the IOM December 1 report, 443 migrants were apprehended, without being previously registered by the Bulgarian authorities.
In a December 4 report, IOM said that between November 21 and 27, a total of 213 migrants and refugees entered Bulgaria, and 258 between November 28 and December 4.
Since the start of 2016, the largest number of migrants entering Bulgaria were from Afghanistan, followed by citizens of Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Iran.
IOM said on December 4 that overall, there had been a total of 374 802 arrivals of migrants and refugees in Europe.
Of this total, 351 080 came by sea and 23 722 by land.
On the Mediterranean crossing, 4715 people had died or were missing, since the start of 2016, IOM said.
/Politics