Demography

Bulgaria's National Audit Office has made clear that the implementation of the national program for the integration of refugees in the period 2011-2013 failed to produce any effect.

Bulgarian municipalities with refugee accommodation centers and those involved in integration programmes will receive significant subsidies.

This was announced by the chief secretary of the State Agency for Refugees (DAB) Zlatko Aleksandrov on Thursday, daily Standart reports.

Aleksandrov explained that the funding will be mainly allocated to infrastructure projects.

Chairman of the State Agency for the Refugees Nikola Kazakov announced on Monday that two new centres for the accommodation of refugees will be built in southern Bulgaria.

Kazakov explained in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) that an information campaign will be carried out in order to calm the citizens.

Number of asylum seekers increases in December

BELGRADE -- Last year, about 16,500 people "had the intention to seek asylum in Serbia," and December saw a drastic increase in their number.

3,400 people requested asylum that month, heard a conference organized by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration in Belgrade on Thursday.

BELGRADE- Last year, about 16,500 people had the intention to seek asylum in Serbia, and December saw a drastic increase in the number of asylum seekers, with 3,400 people requesting asylum that month, it was said at a conference organized by the Serbian Commissariat for Refugees and Migration in Belgrade on Thursday.

Bulgaria announced plans Wednesday to extent a 30-kilometer fence along its border with Turkey, a major entry point for migrants trying to get into the European Union.
      

The number of illegal immigrants entering the European Union more than doubled last year with 75% of them having arrived through the Mediterranean Sea, the EU migration commissioner has said.

The army should help the Interior Ministry to patrol along the Bulgaria-Turkey border by deploying troops there, Bulgarian Vice-President Margarita Popova has said.

Popova has thus joined the debate on further measures to step up security at the border with Turkey in the face of a prospective flow of asylum seekers coming from the south-east.

The number of undocumented migrants who participated in a repatriation scheme run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in cooperation with Greek authorities, rose by 6 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, the Greek Police said on Thursday, releasing its annual figures.

Nikola Kazakov, former Chair of Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees, has been reappointed as head of the unit.

Kazakov was reappointed as Chair of Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees during Wednesday's sitting of the government without a competition.