site.btaBulgaria to Accept 500 Migrants Currently Located in Other Countries

Bulgaria to Accept 500 Migrants Currently Located in Other Countries

Brussels, July 21 (BTA corr. Nikolay Jeliazkov) - In the next two years Bulgaria will accept 500 migrants currently located in other countries, Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova told Bulgarian reporters here on Monday evening, emerging from an extraordinary meeting of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council.

Buchvarova said that the figure is about 33 per cent lower than than the initially planned one. In May the European Commission suggested that Bulgaria accept 788 migrants, of whom 343 Syrians and Eritreans in Italy and 229 in Greece, and 216 refugees located elsewhere.

In Buchvarova's words, the fact that the figure was reduced to 500 shows that Bulgaria's arguments were heeded. She said that it is yet to be decided how the aliens to be accepted by Bulgaria are going to be selected. Responding to a question, Buchvarova said that the admission of the migrants is expected to commence in the autumn.

Monday's Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting decided that the relocation of migrants from Eritrea and Syria currently in Greece and Italy will take place on a voluntary basis. The number of people subject to relocation over two years was reduced to 32,256 persons, instead of the initially planned 40,000.