Turkish Expats Storm Bulgaria Passport Offices

Thousands of Turks from Bulgarian origin formed huge lines in front of the passport offices in the city of Kardzhali with hopes they will be able to renew their Bulgarian ID papers. Photo by BGNES

Thousand of emigrants have arrived from Turkey on a 4-day trip to Bulgaria's southern city of Kardzhali with the goal to renew their Bulgarian ID documents.

Bulgaria begin accepting Tuesday express applications for ID cards and international passports.

In order to ease up the long lines, the Regional Directorate of the Interior in Kardzhali along with the Mayors of 5 local municipalities have been forced to carry out an emergency plan. The Mayors of adjacent towns were asked to provide transportation to their Interior Ministry Offices accepting applications for ID papers.

The municipalities of Momchilgrad, Krumovgrad, Ardino, Dzhebel and Kirkovo, were able to comply, but only the Kardzhali office accepts express applications.

The first Turkish expats wishing to obtain Bulgaria ID documents arrived around 3 am and the line had been 2 000 people-long, including many elderly people, witnesses report.

Until 3 pm, 570 people have paid their application fees at EIBank, and some were directed to other nearby banks over the huge crowding.

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