‘Human traffickers have declared war on the Bulgarian state’, says official Ministry of Internal Affairs

“Today, the so-called human traffickers have declared war on the Bulgarian state and the Bulgarian state will respond to this challenge with all its might,” Acting Interior Minister Ivan Demerjiev said Thursday, commenting on the crash that killed two policemen, after a bus driver carrying irregular migrants rammed the bus into their patrol car in Burgas, on the Black Sea. The minister pointed out that two people from a refugee camp were involved in the accident.

“We will do everything possible to prevent this accident from happening again,” the minister said, adding that border protection would be strengthened. Demerjiev said arrests had been made and police were looking for another suspect. The arrested suspects are three Syrian and two Bulgarian citizens.

In the coming days, 100 Defense Ministry employees will join the additional forces at the border, Ivan Demerjiev said after indicating that he had ordered police authorities to thoroughly check both refugee centers for persons who dare to engage in such activities and settlements where they exist evidence that such persons reside there.

“These checks will be carried out very carefully and quickly and these people will either be brought to court or returned to their place of origin because it turned out that for the most part, the so-called traffickers are foreigners residing in Bulgaria. We will not allow them to stay in our country and carry out such activities. We aspire to finish the matter with them within the next week and their activities will end accordingly,” said Demerjiev.

A total of 7,630 third-country nationals were detained between January and July this year, of which 834 were on entry, 1,053 were on exit through the country’s borders without being registered and 5,743 were found to be staying illegally inside the country, according to statistics from Ministry of the Interior on the immigration situation that were released today. The numbers recorded this year are more than double compared to the same period last year, when a total of 3,673 irregular migrants were detained, the Bulgarian News Agency reports.

Source: RES-MPE