Bulgaria Sending Troops to Border as Migrant Arrivals to Serbia Rise

Defence Minister Nikolay Nenchev said on Monday the Army is sending 25 troops and the relevant equipment to help police guard the border with Serbia in view of increased migrant influx into Bulgaria’s western neighbour.

“I understand there are nearly 4,000 refugees in Greece and Macedonia and at a certain point the stuation could become rather worrisome,” BNR radio station quoted  Nenchev as saying. “That’s why we’ll be taking preventive measures. We’ll be there as much time as needed.”

Nenchev spoke a day after Serbia said that more than 4,000 migrants had crossed the country’s southern border with Macedonia, arriving from Greece. By Monday morning their number had risen to 7,000 while hundreds more entered Macedonia from Greece on Monday.

Bulgaria’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday that there was no increase in migrant pressure at the country's southwestern border with Macedonia.

Migrants and refugees, most of them coming from Syria and Afghanistan, use the so-called Balkan route to reach the wealthier countries of western and northern Europe. They first land in Greece from Turkey and then transit north across non-EU members Macedonia and Serbia to Hungary which lies at the southern edge of the EU’s borderless Schengen zone.

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