site.btaNo Layoffs or Drastic Changes Planned at Border Police, Interior Minister Says

There is no room for concern over layoffs at Border Police or any drastic changes that would affect the working environment, caretaker Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov told journalists on Sunday. In his words, there will be no serious disruptions that would create discomfort for the employees and their families. 

Ilkov attended a ceremony on Sunday marking 137 years of Border Police.

"The Border Police officials will continue to perform their duties as before, they had the opportunity to get acquainted with the activities of their colleagues, with the way and the mechanism by which checks are carried out at the border between Hungary and Austria. Nothing more is done than what we do here," Ilkov commented on the upcoming changes at Bulgaria's land borders as the country joins Schengen fully on January 1, 2025. "A staff has been formed, a comprehensive organisation has been set up, a survey of all checkpoints has been carried out, he added. We hope that by January 1 we will be ready to lift the barriers so that Bulgarian citizens can travel along the EU land borders without the controls that have been in place so far," Minister Ilkov added.

In his words, there will be checks at the Bulgarian-Romanian border, but they will be random, based on risk analysis and when there are data on persons and vehicles of interest. In such cases, those persons and vehicles will be removed from the traffic and will be checked at specially designated places, he specified.

At each border crossing with Greece, a reorganisation is being carried out so that traffic can flow without border checks at the crossing itself, said Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, Director of the Border Police General Directorate. There will be border police on the roads before the checkpoint, either entering or leaving Bulgaria, checking cars and citizens randomly and on the principle of risk assessment, he added. "We will try to ease the travel of citizens and at the same time counteract the criminal contingent that tries to do criminal activities there," Zlatanov added.