Bulgaria Seals Borders for Undocumented Migrants

The Bulgarian prime minister claimed that the country closed its border for undocumented migrants amid the deteriorating crisis.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Bulgaria closed the border for undocumented migrants amid deteriorating crisis, Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said Saturday.

“Bulgaria closed the border for illegal migrants. Anyone who wants to cross legally will pass, the rest – no,” Borissov said, as quoted by the Bulgarian OFFNews website.

The country’s authorities cooperate with the Turkish police holding migrants 25 miles off the border with Bulgaria, the prime minister added.

On Thursday, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry pledged to deploy up to 1,000 troops to strengthen its border with Turkey.

The European Union is grappling with a migrant crisis as hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, mainly from the Middle East and North Africa, arrive in EU member states, fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries.

Many of them use Bulgaria as a transit zone to enter the bloc and travel to wealthy EU states where they intend to apply for asylum.

Over 500,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in the European Union since the beginning of 2015, according to the European Commission.