Bulgaria must state very clearly it has no capacity to accept more refugees, the country's Deputy PM and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin has said.

Kalfin told public broadcaster BNT on Monday that Bulgaria should avoid creating "ghettos" populated by unemployed people with no income, since such people "are prone to committing" radical actions.

"There is social exclusion of people" in the country who are therefore susceptible to certain influences such as "change of religion and outlook", a topic currently on the agenda, in Kalfin's words.

Bulgaria is under pressure to receive thousands or refugees and bearers of humanitarian status who are currently residing in Europe, but have to return to the country that registered them as asylum seekers. There are also daily attempts at crossing the Turkey-Bulgaria border by people from the Middle East and North Africa fleeing their countries and wishing to Enter the EU, with Bulgaria perceived mostly as a stop on their way to Western Europe.

Kalfin also chose to take a side on the issue with border security.

He stressed he was in favour of a proposal voiced by Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov that the army help patrol along the border, a task legally assigned to border police officers.

Vuchkov's idea came as the government started discussing earlier in January measures to tackle the prospective refugee flow that experts believe could reach Bulgaria as soon as temperatures go up this spring.

The Deputy PM downplayed military officials' comments that sending troops to the border with Turkey might be interpreted as an act of aggression, reminding other countries, Turkey included, were already doing the same.

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