Fears that after the closedown of the so-called Balkan Route, migration flow towards West Europe would redirect to Bulgaria have not been justified so far. In Interior Ministry analyses Bulgaria is not part of the new routes that migration flows will choose but nevertheless, this country is working hard to prepare for such a scenario.

Land borders have been reinforced with army and gendarmerie for longer than a month, and they have been training together with a view to possible critical situations. Interaction with neighbor countries is underway – not only between interior ministers, but also between defense ministers as well. At the end of the week, Interior Minister Rumiana Bachvarova agreed with Greek counterpart Nikolaos Toskas on furtherance of cooperation and exchange of preemptive information about attempts for illegal crossing of the border. The Greek side has vowed that it will soon ratify the trilateral agreement with Turkey for a contact center at the Bulgarian Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint. In the meantime, the defense ministers of Bulgaria and Greece Nikolay Nenchev and Panos Kammenos agreed that working groups should hold talks for possible joint operations of the armed forces in the event of refugee pressure.

Even before that the Bulgarian ministers of defense and interior had held talks on migration issues with their counterparts from other neighbor countries. On 18 March a meeting of ministers Bachvarova and Nenchev with their Macedonian counterparts Oliver Spasovski and Zoran Jolevski held at Zlatarevo border checkpoint demonstrated strong political will of both Bulgarian and Macedonian authorities to combat human trafficking. A week later, on 23 March, Defense Minister Nenchev and his Serbian counterpart Zoran Djordjevic agreed in Nis on the exchange of information and interaction in the prevention of illegal crossing of the border.

There are further precautions against increased refugee pressure: this Sunday in the Bay of Burgas the Bulgarian Naval Force and Border Police are holding an exercise for combating possible migration pressure from the Black Sea though this route is very challenging to refugees. Soon a trilateral defense ministerial is due of Bulgaria, Greece and Romania for negotiating a single platform for the region’s defense. The intensity and scope of precautions against increased migration pressure suggest that though it has not materialized for now, risks continue to be real.

English Daniela Konstantinova