State Agency for Refugees

At present, Bulgaria houses 955 foreigners at temporary centres for accommodation run by the State Agency for Refugees (DAB).

This was stated on Tuesday by Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova in a response to a question of MP from the ruling coalition.

Of 5130 beds for asylum seers in accommodation and reception centers across the country, around twenty percent are used as of March 22, the new refugee agency head has announced.

Petya Parvanova told private bTV broadcaster on Monday the capacity could be increased to 6000 in cases of emergency.

A court in the Black Sea city of Burgas has ruled an Iranian woman living in Bulgaria should be granted asylum.

The decision comes after the State Agency for Refugees (DAB) of the country had rejected the woman's asylum request.

As many as 3150 people applied for asylum in Bulgaria in the first two months of 2016, the  State Agency for Refugees has said.

Most of these were citizens of Iraq (1719), followed by Afghanistan (917) and Syria (359), Pakistan (94) and Iran (8).

The latest statistics come after weeks-long delays in publishing the data.

Bulgarian police officers and servicemen are conducting joint training on the country's border with Macedonia on Friday.

The training is aimed at assessing the country's capacity to guard the border in the event of a heightened migrant pressure and counter the smuggling of migrants.

A former interim Interior Minister is taking over the State Agency for Refugees, the Bulgarian government has said.

At a cabinet meeting, Petya Parvanova, who oversaw internal affairs under the 2013 caretaker administration of Marin Raykov, has been appointed to the office.

A joint exercise is to be conducted on Saturday in Southwestern Bulgaria, at the border with Greece and near the one in Macedonia, in light of potentially increasing migratory pressure.

The drill will be held in the region of Petrich, Sandanski and Kulata, the latter being a major border crossing point with Greece.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has sacked Aleksandar Dimitrov as deputy chairman of the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), news website Dnevnik.bg quotes government sources as saying.

Earlier this week, Nikola Kazakov was dismissed as head of the SAR, along with the agency's Chief Secretary, Zlatko Aleksandrov.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said he has referred the case of reported misuse of funding by the State Agency for Refugees (SAR) to the prosecution.

Instances of misuse, like the procurement of food for refugees accomodated in SAR's center at inflated prices, without calling public tenders, were reportd by private national NOVA TV station.

Nikola Kazakov, Chairman of the State Agency for Refugees, has been dismissed, the Bulgarian government announced on Monday.

Kircho Kirov, one of Kazakov's deputies, will serve as interim chairman until the government appoints a new incumbent, the government press office said in a statement.