A total of 15 126 people were not allowed to cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border since the beginning of 2014, Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov told journalists at a joint press conference with caretaker Interior Minister Yordan Bakalov.

Four thousand people were apprehended by the Turkish authorities, after being alerted by Bulgaria's border patrols and more than 3000 were placed in immigrant centres.

Meanwhile, since the beginning of the year the police apprehended 472 citizens of various countries who were involved in human trafficking in Bulgaria, according to Bakalov who presented with Lazarov the interim results of the nationwide police operation against illegal immigrants.

During the operation on Friday were checked mostly hotels and hostels known to house immigrants. Only in Sofia were checked the documents of more than 500 people, of which were arrested 107 – for missing or invalid documents.

A total of 118 illegal immigrants were arrested across the country, including those in Sofia. Police checked 1554 sites and more than 4000 people.

“Such operations will become more frequent,” Bakalov pledged.

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