site.btaBorder Police to Reorganize Its Activity on Borders with Romania, Greece

Border Police Directorate General will reorganize its activity and will not allow the two internal borders with Romania and Greece to be uncontrolled, its Director Anton Zlatanov said Saturday at a briefing at the Ministry of Interior on the expected abolition of border controls at land borders.

He explained that at the border with Greece, compensatory measures will be taken in the border area to prevent and counter the passage of migrants, drug trafficking and smuggling of other prohibited goods. "We have a lot of work ahead of us," Zlatanov stressed.

"On the border with Romania, for the first six months we will continue to carry out border controls at the border crossings, but it will be similar to the controls carried out by the EU countries that have restored their borders at the moment, it will be based on risk analysis. Only high-risk vehicles and citizens will be checked so that we continue to protect the borders and be good partners in the fight against cross-border crime," Zlatanov explained.

He added that at the moment it is not expected to remove the buildings at the border crossings, which is reported as a mistake by Western partners back in the past, who at a time when they want to restore control face difficulties.

Caretaker Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov said that it is planned to send officials next month to draw on the experience and approach of their Austrian and Hungarian counterparts in carrying out checks at the internal borders of EU Member States.

Referring to the Ministry of Interior's future actions on the border with Greece and Romania, the Minister said that such checks would be carried out so as not to deteriorate the security environment. Stating that among the compensatory measures that will be used are - patrols, analysis and acquisition of information. "Our task becomes more difficult from now on and we are ready to face this challenge," Ilkov added.

Zlatanov pointed out that there will be no shocks in the system and in the border police in relation to the employees, no employees will be laid off and removed. "Now we have to double, triple the capacity of our activity. Some of our officers, those who have been working at the border posts will be given new functions and will work in the form of carrying out police checks in the border area. Another part of them will be transformed as operatives - to acquire information for analysis. We know very well what is coming, we are ready," stressed the Border Police Director.