Send to Kindle
About 20,000 migrants have passed through the Sofia Busmantsi Detention Centre. The situation is beyond extreme. Given a capacity of 940 migrants, there are now 1,631 persons or an occupancy rate of 174% . There are 395 persons registered outside the Detention Centre living at their own expense.
Since the opening of the Detention Centre, there have never been that many foreigners residing in Bulgaria illegally. At the same time, there is a severe shortage of personnel – medical, police and service staff. In the last month, there have been cases of over 100 migrants arriving in one night. Most are from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Sometimes, entire Syrian families arrive but they do not stay long.
The Busmantsi Detention centre is near Sofia and is officially referred to as a Special Home for Temporary Placement of Foreigners with the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior.
By law, only foreigners who have resided illegally in Bulgaria and have been issued a deportation or expulsion order are placed there.
According to the weekly statistics of the Interior Ministry, until September 9, 13,005 migrants have entered the territory of Bulgaria since the beginning of 2016. In the period September 2-8 alone, another 664 migrants have crossed over into Bulgaria.36 foreigners have been taken out of the country in the last week.
At present, the occupancy rate of the detention centres is 85% which means that, by September 20, the authorities will have to look for options to construct tent camps or open new or temporary detention centres.
On the occasion of International Migrants’ Day on December 18, migrant business owners in Sofia released a Manifesto of Foreign Entrepreneurs in Bulgaria
At the request of the Pleven District Prosecutor’s Office, the Pleven District Court has ordered the pre-trial detention of three men, citizens of Georgia, who are accused of migrant trafficking
Bulgarian authorities have dismantled an organized criminal network involved in transporting migrants to Western Europe through Bulgaria
The European Commission has identified Spain, Italy, Greece, and Cyprus as countries “under migratory pressure,” opening the way for the relocation of asylum seekers to other EU member states
The District Prosecutor’s Office in Burgas has detained for up to 72 hours a Romanian citizen accused of intentionally causing the deaths of six migrants during a high-speed chase with police on Thursday night
Authorities in Bulgaria continue to investigate a deadly accident involving migrants in Burgas, following a high-speed chase between police teams and a vehicle carrying illegal border-crossers
GERB leader Boyko Borissov reacted to the fall of the Zhelyazkov government during a live broadcast on his official Facebook page, following the mass protests across the country.
The government is making a second clumsy attempt to introduce the state budget.
People with disabilities in Bulgaria face the most severe difficulties in the entire European Union, alongside Greece
The current patient fee for a medical consultation has lost its purpose and no longer serves its intended functions, according to Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA) chairman Dr.
Brussels has unofficially warned Bulgaria’s Finance Minister Temenuzhka Petkova that the country’s euro adoption process could be suspended, according to BGNES, citing Nova TV.
"Everyone wants positions – in regulatory bodies and ministries," he emphasized.
Bulgaria's Strategic Role in the EU's Drone Wall Defense Initiative
When Politics Means Violence
