Veselin Vuchkov

Bulgaria must state very clearly it has no capacity to accept more refugees, the country's Deputy PM and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin has said.

Kalfin told public broadcaster BNT on Monday that Bulgaria should avoid creating "ghettos" populated by unemployed people with no income, since such people "are prone to committing" radical actions.

In regard to the developments in France in the past week, Bulgarian Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov assured there was no concrete threat against Bulgaria, but risks existed.

Vuchkov said that there has been no direct terrorist threat to Bulgaria recently, but despite this the country has taken measures following the latest terrorist attacks in France.

The EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, who is on a visit to Bulgaria, met Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov and Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov on Friday.

Kerchove and Vuchkov condemned the terrorist attack against the office of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Defense Minister Nikolay Nenchev has said that the army would be inefficient in operations involving guarding the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

In a Friday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Nenchev commented on the proposal for joint patrols of the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry at the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

Bulgaria needs at least BGN 150M to halt the influx of illegal migrants across its border with Turkey and will seek financial assistance from the European Commission to tackle the issue, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said on Wednesday.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov announced that the government has never discussed the possibility to station the army at the border with Turkey in order to guard it against the influx of refugees.

According to him, the suggestion was for the army to provide logistical support to the officials of the Interior Ministry.

Milen Penev was officially announced by Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov as the new director of Bulgaria's Border Police on Monday.

Penev succeeds Zaharin Penov, who resigned following the truck incident which claimed the driver's life, and injured most of the other border policemen it was transporting.

The problem with migration is Bulgaria is systemic, not sporadic, according to Gen Miho Mihov, Chair of the parliamentary defense committee and MP from the ABV Movement (Alternative for Bulgarian Revival).

In a Monday interview for the Bulgarian National Radio, Gen Mihov claimed that there was no enduring continuity in the country?s security and defense policy.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva said the authorities were expecting a new rise in migrant numbers in March next year, reports Focus agency.

According to Kuneva, as of November 2014 more than 30 000 people tried to cross into Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Interior Minister Veselin Vuchkov confirmed with a high degree of certainty that the car of the former chief of DANS Petko Sertov has left Bulgarian territory for Greece.

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