site.btaNearly 17,000 Migrants Detained in 2022, Including 1,162 in December - Interior Ministry

A total of 1,162 third country nationals were detained in December 2022, of whom 92 when they tried to leave the country, 84 when they tried to enter, and 986 when they were found to stay without authorization inland, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry reported on Monday.

The number of detainees was 1.4% less than the 1,178 apprehended in November.

The number of third-country nationals detained for the full year 2022 totalled 16,767, including 2,298 at the point of entry and 2,377 unregistered at the point of exit. Of the 12,092 apprehended inland, most were citizens of Afghanistan (50.3%) and Syria (35%). Year on year, the number of detainees increased 1.6-fold (from 10,799 in 2021).

The third-country nationals with and without registration in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System detained at Bulgaria's border crossings between January 1 and December 31, 2022 numbered 6,637, of whom most were at the border with Serbia (3,841) and with Turkiye (2,100).

A total of 2,414 persons, mainly from Syria, were accommodated at the centres with the Agency for Refugees at the Council of Ministers by December 31, 2022. Most of the 704 persons held at the centres with the Interior Ministry's Migration Directorate are nationals of Afghanistan, Syria and Morocco.

A total of 583 third-country nationals were returned, whether coercively or voluntarily, between January 1 and December 31, 2022. Most of those returned arrived from Turkiye (35%) and Morocco (7.9%). Seventy-one migrants were transferred to other EU Member States under "take back" procedures according to the Dublin Regulation.