In readiness for the UN-sponsored International Migrants Day on December 18, the European Union has published 2008 statistics of foreign citizens living in its member states.

Bulgaria, neighboring Romania, Poland and Slovakia all have fewer than 1% of foreign citizens in the population of their countries.

The total foreign citizens in Bulgaria in 2008 was 24 000 (0,3% of the total population). Of this figure, 4 000 (0,0%) were from another EU country, and 21 000 came from a non-EU country.

The largest foreign groups in Bulgaria were citizens of Russia (9 000), followed by Ukraine (2 200) and Greece (1 600).

Throughout the EU 27 in 2008, the highest numbers of foreign citizens were found in Germany (7,3 M persons), Spain (5,3 M), the United Kingdom (4,0 M), France (3,7 M) and Italy 3,4 M). More than 75% of all the foreign citizens in the EU 27 lived in these five countries.

Throughout the 27 EU member states, the largest national groups of foreign citizens were from Turkey (2 419 000), Morocco (1 727 000) and Romania (1 677 000).

International Migrants Day was established in 1990, when the UN Assembly adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations are invited to observe International Migrants Day through the dissemination of information on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of migrants.