Bulgaria Ready to Erect Greek Border Fence Ahead of Migrant Surge

Bulgaria is ready to erect a wire fence across its nearly 300-mile southern border with Greece in preparation for a new migrant surge associated with warming weather, Bulgarian Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev said Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Nenchev was cited as reaffirming the idea by the Sofia-based Novinite news provider less than a month after the Bulgarian Defense Ministry issued its readiness to tackle undocumented migration by building a border fence.

Bulgaria is bracing for increased numbers this spring and summer after countries along the Western Balkan route moved unilaterally to shut their borders to migrants other than Syrian refugees.

The subsequent bottleneck triggered tensions in northern Greece despite the recently cemented EU-Turkey action plan on a one-for-one exchange of Syrian refugees for irregular migrants from other countries designed to relief Greek facilities.

Last year saw over 1.8 million border crossings into Europe in what has become known as the worst refugee crisis since World War II. The crisis sparked an outcry among eastern EU member state leaders over the failure of the Schengen open border systems to curb the migrant numbers.