The price for illegal crossing of the Bulgarian border has increased, said in "The Day Begins on Sunday" the director of the "Border Police" Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov.
"In 2023, when crossing was easy, the price ranged between 700 and 1,000 euros per migrant. Currently, prices vary, depending on the way they are transported, between 8,000 and 20,000 euros per migrant".
Zlatanov explained that the summer and autumn months are peak months for illegal migration, but despite this, the pressure on our borders has decreased significantly:
"We warned back in the spring - despite the fact that the situation is under control, we expect to have incidents and increased pressure now. Compared to 2023, which was the worst, we have a very large decrease in both attempts to cross and in people detained inside the country. From January to August 2023, there were 115,000 prevented attempts, this year there are just over 9,700. We manage to detain almost everyone who tries to enter the country or exit through Romania and Serbia.
Since Bulgaria has been in Schengen, smugglers have been trying to redirect migrants through Romania, but our and Romanian authorities have managed to prevent trafficking to Western Europe.
"It is due to better security, better equipment with technical means, our good relations with neighboring countries. Another factor is the increased operational work and investigations, so that smugglers cannot function. Last year we neutralized 15 large criminal networks involved in migrant trafficking. Rapid pre-trial proceedings are being established, rapid sentences are being handed down.
The predominant groups of migrants continue to be from Syria and Afghanistan, but recently there has been an influx of economic migrants from Morocco and Egypt.
"They come from Africa, fly visa-free on planes to Istanbul and then head to Greece or Bulgaria, with the goal of going to Western Europe. They use the same smugglers and roads as the Afghans and Syrians, and recently there have been many cases of suicides, and recently there was a migrant from Morocco who was shot. Some of these people have long arrived in Turkey, where there are several million in various camps and try at some point to go to Western Europe. Recently, the Turkish authorities have also been doing everything possible to limit illegal migration on their western borders, where they do not allow the vast majority of potential migrants to enter, but they are taking numerous actions in the interior of the country and on their borders with us.
Servicemen from the army support the border police, Frontex also - about 150 people at the moment, explained Anton Zlatanov. About 100 officers from Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria are also participating in guarding the borders under the so-called "Operation Solidarity".
150 km of our borders are not yet equipped with video surveillance, but work is currently underway to install cameras. The project is for 4 years, but Zlatanov expects it to be completed within two, and by the end of this year 50 km will be covered. It is also planned to upgrade already installed video cameras.
Bulgaria must maintain the full capacity of the "Border Police" on the borders with Greece and Romania, despite the fact that there is no control due to Schengen, Anton Zlatanov is categorical.
"Checks are carried out randomly or according to the "risk analysis" method and we have quite a few results on smuggling. Our main commitment is to counteract the Bulgarian-Greek border from becoming an entrance for illegal migration. There are such attempts, that is why we have saturated the entire border with patrols".
Zlatanov also commented on the cases of detained inflatable boats for trafficking across the English Channel:
"These boats passed completely legally as transit goods past Bulgarian territory, in order to reach various countries, to be assembled and sent to the French coast. The problem is huge for Britain and France. If the boats are designed for 50 people, they load 90, the boat is overloaded and people drown".
According to him, Britain has sent requests for assistance to our authorities, and the "Customs" agency has reorganized the import of these boats.
"The report of the British authorities is that thanks to our results, they have a 30% drop in illegal migration, which is a huge percentage".