Today, the "Border Police" celebrates 138 years since its establishment. On the air of "The Day Begins" on BNT, Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov, director of the service, commented on the holiday, the successes achieved and the current challenges facing the structure.
„Today is the holiday of the "Border Police" - established 138 years ago as a border guard. Some of the first border guards were volunteers, bandits... Nowadays, the "Border Police" is a structure respected by all European partners and, in this context, I want to wish all colleagues to be alive and healthy and have a successful year.“
Commenting on the motivation of the employees, he added that he constantly sees it in the field.
Regarding public trust and salaries, Zlatanov stated:
„In no country is the „Border Police“ very much liked by the citizens, this is normal, but it should have great trust. Raising salaries last year was reasonable – they had reached offensively low levels.“
Regarding the politicization of the system, the director was categorical that he was firmly against the system being politicized and used for political purposes.
„I am firmly against the politicization of the Ministry of Interior system, I am firmly against whether one party should govern the Ministry of Interior. We should be left to work in peace without a political element.“
He that in the “Border Police“ there is serious modernization and improvements in the technical base of the service:
“In recent years, there was talk of an area of 100 km without video surveillance, now this problem has been solved and 50 km already have video surveillance. We have no problems of a technical nature, we solve them with EU funds and a small state budget.“
As for the personnel potential, Zlatanov indicated that there is a high interest in the service.
“The personnel potential – there is a huge desire of people to serve in the “Border Police“ . Two consecutive competitions – 2,600 candidates for 400 places.“
Speaking of Bulgaria's Schengen membership, he explained how this has changed border security:
„How much we worked to prepare for Schengen entry, how many checks we were subjected to, no one believed we would enter, but we had a clear goal and achieved it, which brought immense satisfaction. The external borders with Turkey, Serbia, North Macedonia - nothing changed there, but gradually on the Greek and Romanian borders, six months later, we completely abolished border controls, but we maintained our capacity in the 30-kilometer zone, where we carry out very strict police control.“
„The image of the „Border Police“ is well above the average level“, Zlatanov also said.
“The Border Police“ continues to actively counteract attempts to illegally cross the Bulgarian border. Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov pointed out that the goal of the officers is to keep migrants outside the country, while at the same time ensuring the safety of the population.