site.btaBulgaria’s Refugee Centres Filled at 72% of Capacity

The refugee centres in the country are filled at 72% of their capacity, said Refugee Agency chair Mariana Tosheva on the morning show of the Bulgarian National Television on Wednesday. 
„There are altogether six refugee centres and two are filled at 104%. The centre in the Sofia neighbourhood of Ovcha Kupel, where mainly minors are accommodated, is full. There are 340 children. The other centre which is full is that in Vrazhdebna in Sofia,” she said.  

In 2023, a total of 590 persons from all EU member states were returned under the Diblin Regulation. Some 113 persons were returned from Austria, said Tosheva.  
The Dublin Regulation is inefficient, and the system does not work successfully especially in the conditions of migrant pressures, which is why a sustainable solidarity mechanism needs to be put in place, she said.  
 
There is no fixed quota for return of refugees. Six thousand is a reference number for the migrants who had passed through Bulgaria, filed an asylum application and left the counry while the procedure was underway and reached Austria. These persons should be returned to Bulgaria under the Dublin Regulation, said Tosheva. According to her, Austria probably wants to stress the total number of persons who should be returned and which is why it set the figure at 6,000. “Overall we comply with returns from Austria, Germany, and France,” said Tosehva.  

It is very important that EU member countries should have a common approach to the countries of origin. At issue are European exploratory missions to Afghanistan and Syria where their nationals could be returned to certain regions. This should be a common European approach instead of separate agreements for individual countries. She said that there are large numbers of migrants from Morocco, Tunisia and Iraq.