Turkey, Bulgaria cooperation on migration hailed
09:21, 03/05/2019, FridayU: Update: 09:22, 03/05/2019, Friday
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Boyko Borisov
‘Our cooperation with Turkey in fight against irregular migration works perfectly,’ says Bulgarian premier
The cooperation between Bulgaria and Turkey in their fight against irregular migration “works perfectly”, Bulgarian prime minister said on Thursday.
Boyko Borisov was speaking at a roundtable meeting -- titled The European Union External Border Protection and Irregular Migration Prevention Policy -- in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
"Our cooperation with Turkey in the fight against irregular migration works perfectly. The EU gave €150 million euros ($167.72 million) to the protection of the border facility. This financing gave a positive result," said Borisov.
According to the information given by Borisov, Turkey-Bulgaria border was breached 6,904 times last year, while 761 irregular migrants were held for trying to illegally cross to Bulgaria in the same period.
Borisov also said that the number of migrants in Turkey has reached 4 million and “the situation is going to get worse.”
"God saves us from a new wave of irregular migration. But if it happens, it's going to be clear on how €20 billion [$22.4 billion] were used," Borisov said, referring to the investment made by EU on the security of the external borders.