site.btaParliament Hears Justice, Interior Ministers in Connection with Migration Pressure on Bulgaria

109 POLITICS - PARLIAMENT - JUSTICE MINISTER - INTERIOR MINISTER

Parliament Hears Justice,
Interior Ministers
in Connection with Migration Pressure on Bulgaria


Sofia, October 30 (BTA) - Parliament heard on Thursday Deputy PM
and Justice Minister Hristo Ivanov and Interior Minister Yordan
Bakalov in connection with the measures taken by the Council of
Ministers to curb the increasing migration pressure on
Bulgaria. The hearing was done at the request of MP Tsvetan
Tsvetanov and other GERB MPs.

Ivanov said that one cannot characterize the situation with
refugees as exacerbating, although the migration pressure is
constantly growing.

A total of 3,298 persons have been accommodated in the State
Agency for Refugees' seven territorial units, which have a total
capacity of 6,000 persons, Ivanov added, explaining that the
migration can still be handled.

He noted that 408 persons live outside the facilities at their
own expense. A total of 2,505 people, or 76 per cent of all
accommodated individuals, are Syrian citizens. The next largest
group is from Afghanistan - 461 persons, followed by Iraq - 120
persons.

There is a total of 1,076 children with the number of
unaccompanied minors being 89. Of those children, 261 have
signed up to study the Bulgarian language and 45 are enrolled in
school. The high percentage of children not being in school is
due to the fact that there is no legal basis for them to be
enrolled in school while the procedure for determining the
immigrants' status is ongoing, Ivanov explained. He also noted
that a large part of new arrivals are heading to other
destinations and do not take advantage of the educational
opportunities offered to their children.

A total of 6,766 people sought asylum in Bulgaria between
January and October of 2014, with 3,320 of them having been
granted refugee status and 1,695 humanitarian status. The number
of rejections are 366 and 1,539 proceedings were terminated,
the Minister explained. He compared the situation to last year,
when a total of 7,144 persons sought asylum in Bulgaria and 183
were granted refugee and 2,279 humanitarian status. The number
of rejections last year stood at 354 with 824 terminated
proceedings.

Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov said that migration pressure on
Bulgaria's western and northern borders is stronger than on its
southern and eastern borders. He explained that this means the
foreigners are attempting to leave the country en route to other
European states via Bulgaria's border with Serbia and Romania.
A total of 2,140 such attempts were registered between January 1
and October 25 of this year, Bakalov said. The most illegal
attempts to cross over were on the border with Serbia - 1,312,
compared to 595 on the Romanian border.

From the beginning of August, the Interior Ministry's efforts
have been mainly focused on countering human trafficking,
Bakalov noted. A total of 472 human traffickers have been
detained until September 30.

A total of 6,325 persons from third countries have been detained
on the Bulgarian-Turkish border between January 1 and October
25. The illegal immigrants come mostly from Syria - 2,859,
Afghanistan - 860, Iraq - 153, Turkey - 94, Myanmar - 84. Out of
all the illegal border crossers, 3,139 were intercepted at the
green border and 1,186 at border crossing checkpoints.

Due to the tightened security on the Bulgarian-Turkish border,
many aliens are now attempting to cross the border with Greece,
Bakalov explained. A total of 276 such persons were detained at
the border with Greece by October, with 269 of them having tried
to cross the green border and seven caught at border
checkpoints.

Currently there are as many police officers on the southern
border as can be found in a typical region, which creates
problems inside the country, the Interior Minister said, adding
that he has proposed enlagement of the Interior Ministry's
staff.

Bakalov said that the surveillance coverage between Rezovo and
Svilengrad (on the border with Turkey) will be at 100 per cent
by June 30, 2015, adding that human presence or some sort of
fence will still be needed. Bakalov called on MPs to make a
decision for allocating more funds, noting that the police
officers currently at the border cost the Ministry around 1.1 -
1.2 million leva monthly, while the 30 km fence had a final cost
of around 7.3 million leva.

Bakalov also said that a readmission agreement between Turkey
and the EU came into effect on October 1, but it contains some
conditions. "One is we can't hand back the Syrians who have
already crossed the border," he said.

Commenting the financing under the EU External Borders Fund,
Bakalov said that contracts totalling 3.1 million leva were
signed between August and October. The money was used for
maintenance of the Schengen system, purchasing transportation
vehicles, supplying technical equipment. In addition to this,
there are public tenders for 2.1 million leva. LI/MY