MIGRATION PRESSURE AT BULGARIAN-SERBIAN BORDER HAS INCREASED

The migration pressure at the Bulgarian-Serbian border has increased. 554 migrants have attempted to illegally cross into Serbia in July, the Border Police unit in the village of Bregovo told BNT on 4th of August. The most recent arrest of illegal migrants was on 1st of August when a group of 62 foreigners was detained near the village of Podgore.

The statistics show that the attempts for illegal crossing of the border are on the rise and the point mostly used by migrants was in the region of Bregovo, North-Western Bulgaria. In May, 412 people attempted to cross into Serbia, 482 in June and 546 in July.

In order to stop illegal crossings, border police officers work 24 hours shifts. BNT team met the police officers who were just starting their next 24 shift. The team visited the farthest North-West part of Bulgaria where the river Timok is, shortly before its mouth with the Danube river. In practice, this is Bulgaria’s state border with Serbia. At the moment, this region is the busiest in terms of migration pressure along the Bulgarian-Serbian border. Migrants often make attempts to cross into Serbia from this point, as the 17 km long river is only metres away from the town of Bregovo and road infrastructure. 554 migrants were detained in a month in 26 attempts to cross the border illegally.

When we identify a group of migrants, our job is to disrupt the attempt for the illegal crossing of the border, the police officers explain.

When detained, the migrants who have ID documents are released in the interior of Bulgaria, the Deputy-Head of Bregovo border police station, chief inspector Tsvetomir Tsvetkov says. The undocumented persons are transported to Sofia.

Police explain that people traffickers transport migrants from Turkey to Bregovo, on the edge of the 30 km long border zone. Traffickers assign people who move in front of them to watch for police presence and warn the traffickers. Once they arrived at Bregovo or Vrashka Chuka, the migrants take a few hours rest and then head towards the border.

In the recent month, police have detained 60 alleged traffickers, who attempted to smuggle migrants into Serbia.

Some 5,000 foreigners have attempted to get into Serbia through the Bulgarian-Serbian border since the beginning of the year. Most of them were from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.