As of the end of November, the Bulgarian police at the country’s borders had checked more than 176,000 attempts by migrants to enter the EU illegally, a 13% increase compared to November 2022, the Interior Ministry has announced.  A 35% seasonal decline of the registered attempts at illegal crossings was registered in November. The people stopped at the border withdrew to the territory of neighbouring countries. The situation worst was at the Bulgaria-Turkey border, where 99% of the migrant stream is concentrated. 175,000 is the number of attempts to cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the rest are along the Bulgarian-Greek border. There, the decline in the number of attempts is by 86% compared to 2022. After notification by Bulgarian patrols, the border authorities in neighbouring countries apprehended 616 migrants. 17,186 illegal migrants have been captured in Bulgaria since the beginning of 2023.