The measures that have been implemented to stop the flow of migrants are yielding results, believes caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev. He made his comments after a joint visit with the military minister Dimitar Stoyanov at the Bulgarian-Turkish border near Elhovo. According to him, the pressure is decreasing little by little, and all week there has been intensive work with the traffickers on whom war has been declared.
„With the full force of the police, we gathered information from all services relevant to this matter. We have made a list of persons engaged in this activity and have been actively working with them all week. They are even now leaking counter-information that this has disrespected them and greatly hampered their activities.“
The interior minister reported that nearly 1,000 people were returned per day, while in the last 24 hours they were slightly more than 500.
Internal checks are also underway. The Minister stated that data has been collected from the Directorate of Internal Security and the State Agency for National Security, as well as from all services for cases with suspected police involvement. Measures will be taken in the coming days, there will be rotations, as well as criminal proceedings against certain individuals.
Personnel changes are imminent in the regional directorates of the Border Police due to employees’ relations with migrant trafficking, said Demerdzhiev and specified that the inspectors from the Internal Security have collected information on various people from the middle management staff. The investigation was launched after the death of the two Burgas policemen who tried to stop a bus with migrants.
