The topic of illegal migration has once again come to the fore after the series of incidents with migrants in the Burgas region and the increased public doubts about the effectiveness of the security along the Bulgarian-Turkish border. While the institutions assure that control has been strengthened, experts warn of deep problems in the system related to corruption, networks of funnels and risks to national security. Dr. Asen Peychev, a lecturer in national security and an expert in counterterrorism, a member of SORA, spoke to FACT.
- Mr. Peychev, migrants arrested in Burgas, migrants crashed in Burgas, a car with migrants in a race with the police in Burgas… And many more examples. And politicians claim that our border is secure. What is happening at the border?
- Migration to the EU is not a collection of incidents. It is a pandemic from which profit is made. In addition to the examples you listed above, there are many more that remain hidden from the public. It is a public secret that migrant channels operate around the clock. From Malko Tarnovo to Svilengrad, there are numerous groups of channelers that local people know. However, what is more interesting is what the local security services serving the area know? Are they, like politicians, turning a blind eye to this problem that is so painful for society, but brings millions of euros in revenue per month to the people along the chain serving this business?
- More and more experts claim that “our border has been breached from within“. What does this mean?
- The state provides the money for border security, but the profits are collected and go according to long-established schemes. Naturally, this is denied. Then where did so many ghettos in the EU come from? Why have more and more Schengen countries introduced border controls on internal borders? After all, the EU Treaty states that we are an area of freedom, security and rule of law. After all, we are building a federation whose external borders are a guarantor of all this. After all, huge amounts of money are being spent on FRONTEX - the European border guard. The experts are absolutely right in their opinion that "our border has been breached from the inside", because there is information that corruption in the Border Guard is widespread from the lowest to the highest level. There is operational information that from the highest level in the Border Guard, cash flows are distributed to certain political circles and political figures. It is an open secret in the regions where money laundering is practiced, that a large part of the border police, even at the lowest level, are millionaires in euros.
- What are the main reasons for this - Corruption, political umbrella, personnel problems or something else?
- The main reasons for this are the political umbrella and corruption, as well as the unwillingness of politicians and political parties to deal with this problem, which brings them hundreds of millions of euros in corruption income. The personnel problem is also one of the main reasons for the incompetence of the Border Police leadership. With the arrival of the new director, who is currently holding the position, all professionals who had worked for many years in leadership positions in the Border Police were removed. They were simply replaced with personnel from the SDVR, most of whom were in the security police in the SDVR. This led to another change in mood, to demotivation and disappointment in the composition of professional border guards and from there to a decline in the efficiency and quality of their work.
- People often talk about networks of channelers, but rarely about the people who stand behind them. Do the investigations reach the organizers and financiers of these channels, or are the performers mostly detained?
- Not only are there talks about smuggling networks and channels, but they actually exist. It is no secret that the leaders of these channels on the Turkish side are two Iraqi citizens and one Pakistani. They unofficially coordinate their activities with the Turkish security services. Specialists involved in studying this problem often receive videos, photos and recordings of migrants passing through the fence, where Bulgarian border policemen are clearly seen welcoming them, receiving their payment and then escorting them to the first transit point. The recordings and videos are professionally produced, the faces of the participants on the Turkish side are concealed, which leads to the conclusion that they were made by people trained and probably belonging to the Turkish security services.
As far as I am aware, the operational directorates of the General Directorate of the Bulgarian Police have information about the persons participating in the channels, but the unspoken instruction is to capture only the drivers, who are mostly foreigners.
Thus, when capturing them, they cannot provide useful operational information.
- As an expert in counterterrorism, do you see a real risk among illegal migrant flows that individuals associated with radical organizations or terrorist structures will infiltrate?
- The flows of migrants, goods, means of transport and capital across the border are enormous. All kinds of risks and subjects can easily be hidden in them. I have received information that in the groups of "scammed" migrants, individuals periodically appear for whom it is known that between 40-50 thousand euros were paid per person and who are served as VIPs transported to Western Europe. These people are from extremely radical Islamic organizations. They always have Iranian officers from the security services attached to them. This information raises concerns and worries about the security of the Republic of Bulgaria and the European Union.
- Does Bulgaria have a sufficiently effective system for checking and subsequent monitoring of migrants suspected of having links to extremist organizations?
- The EU has adopted a dangerously liberal approach to borders. US Vice President J.D. Vance said at the Munich Conference in 2025: “The threat that worries me most is the threat from within - the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values“. Bulgaria cannot be outside this system. I would not say that Bulgaria has an effective system for checking and subsequent monitoring of migrants suspected of having links to extremist organizations. This is because the majority of migrants are illegal immigrants and are not reflected in any systems, i.e. they do not exist in practice. Those who officially register usually use a foreign nationality, a foreign identity, and it is almost impossible to make a professional identification of them. Colleagues from civil and military intelligence are involved in this process. It is they who, with their expertise, contribute to the better identification of persons seeking asylum in the Republic of Bulgaria.
- In recent years, the Ministry of Interior has reported numerous operations against migrant trafficking groups. Does this mean that the state is controlling the problem, or on the contrary - that the scale of trafficking remains serious?
- The reports of the Ministry of Interior and what they show publicly as PR actions are only a small part of the illegal trafficking. The state is failing in the tasks of controlling the migrant flows that cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border and are largely in transit to Western Europe, because many of the migrants cannot be identified. Unfortunately, this is not only a failure for the Bulgarian state, but also a failure for the European Union in relation to deterring emigrant flows. When statistics are made on smuggled goods, drugs or people who have crossed the border illegally, we must be aware that the intercepted flow is 5-6% of the total flow - I am talking about illegally crossed people, drug smuggling, etc. We must ask ourselves where the funds of the European Union go and, respectively, reaching the Ministry of Interior for equipment, technical means, vehicles, weapons, training and improving the qualifications of border guards. It is commented that the new leadership of the Ministry of Interior has ordered a full inspection of all public procurement in recent years in the General Directorate of Border Guards. It is said that there were omissions and violations, but whether this is so, the inspection will show.
- After Bulgaria's admission to the land Schengen, did the risks of our country becoming a transit corridor for illegal migration to Western Europe increase, or is this an exaggerated fear?
- Our country, both before Schengen and after we were admitted to the land Schengen, is a transit corridor for illegal migration to Western Europe. This is because the policy of the last few governments was based on the ostrich principle of “… burying its head in the sand”. In their desire to deserve a pat on the back from Europe, a series of interior ministers showed only the good part of what has been done. What experts have noticed is that the Ministry of Interior is concealing the scale of this problem and providing data to the public by greatly underestimating the number of migrants passing through and greatly exaggerating the success rate in the fight against illegal migration. What is happening at the borders, especially in its part called the "green border", is deliberately concealed from the public. A series of governments have declared how they have fought drug smuggling, smuggling of goods, illegal migrants and other vicious practices at border crossings. The truth is that these practices are not only not decreasing, but are constantly increasing.
Even the penultimate Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Ivan Hristanov, despite his declarations that he has changed the phytosanitary control of Kapitan Andreevo, the Bulgarian Food and Drug Control Agency, etc., the huge financial flows from these structures continue to circulate between the same players (political and underground).
- What is the role of international criminal networks in the trafficking of migrants via the Balkan route and is there evidence that Bulgarian criminal groups work together with them? Does the Balkan route continue to be among the busiest in Europe?
- Despite the political tensions and historical confrontations that continue to characterize the Balkans, cooperation in the field of organized crime has never ceased. On the contrary, it has become one of the most resilient and internationalized networks of illegal activity in Europe. Bulgarian criminal groups involved in drug smuggling, weapons, prostitution and pipe-trafficking are closely linked to similar structures mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia. The transfer of illegal migrants is one of the activities they carry out jointly with these groups. There is information that migrants passing through Bulgaria to Western Europe also carry drugs with them. We should not ignore the role of the Turkish and Albanian mafias, which are becoming increasingly active and expanding their activities in the region, using Turkey's geostrategic position on the routes for trafficking migrants and heroin from Asia to Europe. Bulgaria is a key transit corridor from the Balkans to Central Europe in the trafficking of drugs, migrants, arms smuggling, fuel and illegal goods.
- What specific measures should be taken on the Bulgarian-Turkish border – more equipment and video surveillance, more employees or stricter penalties for participants in the smuggling schemes?
- As an expert, I would make several recommendations for better ensuring security and protection of the border:
-- to strengthen analytical units for tracking flows and threats where they are formed (for example, in Afghanistan) and along the entire route, because only then can operational-search activities in the border zone of Bulgaria meet the risks and achieve an effect
-- to increase patrol activity to the border itself and the fence, effectively using the numerous (and expensive) technical systems, drones, service dogs
-- the employees working on border protection should be local residents who know the area well. Currently, employees who live 150-200 kilometers from their place of work on the border are being used, which places an additional burden on them and makes them ineffective in performing their official duties.
-- the intelligence system, physical security and technology must be coordinated
-- secret posts must be restored
-- interaction must be created between the operational department of the Border Police, the “Military Intelligence“ Service and the “Intelligence“ State Agency
These services have a strong presence in the border regions of the Republic of Turkey and their operational information can be extremely useful for identifying, preventing and possibly detaining most of the participants in the channels for illegal migrants. And most importantly - the border departments must first and foremost mind their own business - there are about 40 of them and they almost duplicate the regional departments. For example, why should there be a Belogradchik Regional Police Station and a Belogradchik Police Station? Both are police structures and do the same job. It is clear that one should accept the border as a duty, the other should deal with public order and strengthen security in the border area.
- If we were to assess the threat to Bulgaria's national security now, where would you place illegal migration and human trafficking - among the most serious risks or behind other challenges such as cybersecurity, organized crime and hybrid attacks?
- I would like to remind you that US President Donald Trump and other leaders warned the EU about the threats of civilizational chaos. This was also written into the US doctrine. Illegal migration and human trafficking are an extremely high threat to the security of Bulgaria and the other members of the European Union due to the fact that the huge number of migrants threaten the civilizational and religious image of Europe. I hope that political parties and politicians, as well as the administration, because they are called upon to protect our country from this problem, will realize their responsibility to our society. It is very dangerous now to throw everything at the border and create psychoses. But, look, the new border facilities of Poland, Estonia, Turkey, etc. Look at what the new Hungarian leader Magyar says about migration. These processes must be mastered with a new EU doctrine. It must lend a hand to well-intentioned countries and definitively isolate the threats.