site.bta18,554 Third Country Nationals Detained in Bulgaria in 2023, Up by 10.7% from 2022

The Bulgarian authorities detained 18,554 third country nationals as illegal migrants in 2023, which was 10.7% more than in 2022, Interior Ministry data show.

Those detained last year included 1,803 inbound travellers arrested at the Bulgarian border and 1,990 outbound unregistered persons also arrested at the border. The remaining 14,761 migrants were found to stay in the country's interior illegally.

In December 2023 alone, Bulgarian law enforcers detained 546 third country nationals, down by 42.6% compared with November 2023. The total included 243 inbound travellers arrested at the Bulgarian border and 141 outbound unregistered persons also arrested at the border, plus 162 found to stay illegally in the country's interior.

As at December 31, 2023, there were 387 occupants at migrant centres operated by the Interior Ministry. This put the occupancy rate in such places at 36.5%. The people were mainly from Syria, Morocco and Afghanistan.

Another 2,611 people were staying at camps of the State Agency for Refugees, their capacity filled at 72.7%. Throughout 2023 the centres received 20,524 people; 19,939 of them eventually left of their own accord, and 2,600 left after receiving protection.

People who applied for protection in 2023 numbered 22,518. For more than 16,000 of them the protection procedure was discontinued. Another 2,950 were denied protection.

Thirty-five unaccompanied migrants under 18 years of age were detected last year. They were handed over to the Social Assistance Directorate.

On Friday Interior Ministry Secretary General Zhivko Kotsev said the migrant pressure at the Turkish-Bulgarian border is negligible. He said 28 trespassing attempts by third country nationals have been registered there in January.