Malko Tarnovo

275 illegal migrants were stopped today at the Bulgarian-Turkish border during a large-scale/specialized police operation.

"We have so far 13 groups. This is from 6:00 a.m. until now," announced Commissioner Ivaylo Tonchev, head of the Border Police Department in Elhovo.

The residents of the village of Gramatikovo in the municipality of Malko Tarnovo are preparing for protest. They will close the main road to Turkey next Friday - 13 October, reported bTV. 

The reason for their dissatisfaction is the ruined roads in the village. After the last floods for which a state of emergency was declared in Gramatikovo, the village is almost inaccessible.

Bulgaria said March 18 that it was ready to boost patrols and finish a fence along its southeastern frontier with Turkey in an effort to hold off any new influx of migrants.

The pledge comes as Turkey is in separate rows with Bulgaria and the EU, raising worries Ankara could allow a rush of asylum seekers across the border.   

Bulgaria's Defence Minister Stefan Yanev said on Saturday that he is ready to boost patrols and finish a fence along its southeastern frontier with Turkey in an effort to hold off any new influx of migrants.

A fire that broke out on Tuesday in the area of Gramatikovo, not far from the Bulgarian-Turkish border, has been spreading for 24 hours, firefighters say.

A group of seven Afghan migrants has been detained in relation to the events, according to police officials.

The pressure exerted by migrants on the Bulgarian-Turkish border has decreased by almost 50 % in the past months compared to the same period last year.

Since the beginning of the year, Bulgaria has registered 10 000 attempts for illegal crossings of the border.

A regional court in the town of Malko Tarnovo on Friday released Petar Nizamov, the vigilante migrant hunter who published a video of three Afghan migrants he had "captured" on April 10, to home arrest.

Video footage showing the detention of migrants in Southern Bulgaria done by volunteer squads has added to controversy in a country divided over the treatment of migrants trying to cross its borders.

The footage purportedly shows three men, supposedly from Afghanistan, lying on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

Twelve illegal migrants were detained in the Bulgarian capital on Thursday after a short car pursuit with the police.

Police officers ordered the driver of a minibus traveling on the Tsarigradsko Shose boulevard to stop for a check.

A Bulgarian hunting party captured fifty illegal immigrants near the country's border with Turkey over the weekend.

The party, which numbered 19 men, set out from the village of Evrenozovo near the town of Malko Tarnovo on Saturday to hunt game.

The hunters had been walking for hours into the forest when they heard a loud conversation near the border, private NOVA TV informs.