site.btaBulgaria Has Significantly Improved Border Protection, President Radev Tells Visiting Austrian Chancellor Nehammer 

Bulgaria has significantly improved the organization of protecting its border with Turkiye, new technical systems have been installed and actions have been taken to better train border police officers, President Rumen Radev told a news conference he gave with visiting Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer here on Monday. 

Illegal migration is a challenge for united Europe and Bulgaria, being a responsible member of the European Union, makes huge efforts to deal with this challenge, Radev further said. 

The Bulgarian President and the Austrian Chancellor landed in Elhovo after inspecting the Bulgarian-Turkish border from a military helicopter. In Elhovo, they visited the Border Police Regional Directorate, which houses the Regional Coordination Centre is located. The Centre is part of the Integrated Monitoring System of the Bulgarian-Turkish border. They had a working meeting and also inspected the facilities where illegal migrants who have entered Bulgaria are detained.

The pressure on the Bulgarian border has increased drastically in the past year and the migrants' actions are becoming ever more aggressive, Radev said, adding that Bulgaria has lost four police officers in the course of just four months, while dozens of others have been wounded. Bulgaria took swift and decisive actions to deal with this difficult situation, the President said. "We are faced with a powerful and well-organized migrant trafficking network, which is centred and has branches across different EU Member States," the Bulgarian President said. 

Radev said that the fence along the border with Turkiye was constructed with national funding. He noted his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding that a commitment was made by the Turkish side to better protect the border. 

"We have improved significantly the border protection, we have repaired the available infrastructure, we have installed new technical systems, and are taking actions to perfect the training of the border police officers and improve their integrity," Radev explained, adding that additional forces have been sent to the border, while checks in the country's interior have been enhanced with the purpose of fighting illegal migration. 

According to Radev, quite many of the human traffickers detained across Bulgaria have turned out to be citizens of other EU Member States.

"We conducted a large-scale special operation in Bulgaria, Turkey and other neighbouring countries last week, which dealt a blow not only on the traffickers, but also on the centres that manage the trafficking itself," the President said.