Sofia, Aug. 25, (BTA/GNA) – “Today, the so-called human traffickers declared war on the Bulgarian State and the Bulgarian State will respond to this challenge with full force,” caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said on Thursday, commenting the accident in which two police officers were killed after a bus driver, carrying illegal migrants, ran into their police car in Burgas (on the Black Sea). He pointed out that two persons from a refugee camp were involved in the incident.
“We will do everything possible that this accident does not repeat itself,” he said, adding that border protection will be enhanced. Demerdzhiev said that arrests have been made and the police are looking for another suspect. The arrested suspects are three Syrian nationals and two Bulgarian citizens.
In the coming days, 100 employees of the Defence Ministry will join the extra forces at the border, said Demerdzhiev said, after pointing out that he had ordered the police authorities to check very precisely both the refugee centres for persons who dare to engage in such activity and the settlements where we have evidence that such persons reside.
“These checks will be carried out very carefully and quickly. These persons will either be brought to court or returned to their places of origin, because it has turned out that, for the most part, the so-called smugglers are foreign nationals who reside in Bulgaria. We will not allow them to stay in our country carrying out such activities. We are ambitious to finish the issues with them within the next week and to finish their activities accordingly,” Demerdzhiev said.
A total of 7,630 third-country nationals were detained between January and July of this year, of whom 834 upon entering, 1,053 upon exiting through the state border without registration, and 5,743 were found to be staying illegally in the country’s interior, show Interior Ministry statistics about the migration situation, made public on Thursday. This year’s figures are more than double last year’s, when a total of 3,673 illegal migrants were detained during the same period.
BTA/GNA