Bulgaria Reluctant to Send Joint Patrols with Serbia on Turkish Border

File photo, BGNES

Bulgaria is not inclined to allow the deployment of joint border police units with Serbia to its border with Turkey, a recent government decision shows.

Last week Bulgaria approved an agreement for bilateral police cooperation that provides for the establishment of joint patrols on the common border with Serbia.

However, the government stops short of allowing the patrols to work as far as the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The text confines the scope of action allowed to the joint patrols to "the common border".

Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojša Stefanović in August proposed to his Bulgarian counterpart Rumyana Bachvarova that police officers from his country provide assistance in the protection of the Serbian border.

Belgrade has sought to raise awareness of the surge in migrants from Bulgaria over the past months, stepping up its own border security.

Additionally, Stefanović said earlier in September police officers from other countries, such as Hungary (Serbia's neighbor to the northeast), would help its own staff patrol along the border with Bulgaria.

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