Illegal immigration

Interior Ali Yerlikaya Minister has announced that the measures to detect and combat illegal migration will continue to intensify following the evening inspections conducted last week.

The fight against irregular migration has been identified as a top priority by the ministry, with efforts being made not only in Istanbul but also across all 81 provinces, Yerlikaya said.

VIENNA - Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Friday Austria, Serbia and Hungary had succeeded in curbing illegal migration, and thanked Serbia for amending its visa regime for Indian and Tunisian nationals, which he noted had resulted in a decline in the number of illegal migrants in Austria.

He was speaking after a Vienna summit of the three countries.

A specialized police operation against illegal migration has been launched across the country, BNR reported.

The police, together with the prosecutor's office, will attack the so-called "Havalari".

19 illegal migrants from Morocco and Syria were found in two houses in the "Bunkera" villa area near Bistritsa, reported the National Radio.

There is an increased police presence in the area.

23 illegal immigrants were detained around 10:45 a.m. today in the "Novi Iskar" district of Sofia.

21 men and two women from Morocco and Afghanistan were detained.

In another police action in the capital's "Gorna Banya" district, 37 migrants from Syria were detained.

An investigation is ongoing in both cases.

Nearly 40 illegal migrants from Afghanistan were detained in a van this morning. The signal was given around 6 o'clock.

The migrants were detained on the Trakia highway in the direction of Sofia. The driver of the van is a 23-year-old Bulgarian citizen without a driver's license.

46 illegal migrants were found in a house in the Sofia village of Kokalyane.

The Ministry of the Interior specified to the National Radio that the migrants were from Morocco, Syria and Pakistan. All of them are men, and 11 of them are minors.

A pre-trial proceeding is being conducted on the case.

The Slovenian police processed a total of 15,456 cases of illegal crossings of the border in the first five months of the year, which is three times more than in the same period in 2022. The top countries of origin of the illegal migrants were Afghanistan, Morocco and Russia.

Approximately 43,000 irregular migrants have been deported since the beginning of the year, indicating a 29 percent increase compared to the same period last year, the Interior Ministry's Migration Management Directorate has announced.

Ten illegal migrants from Syria were caught on "Trakia" highway - near the village of Tsaratsovo, Plovdiv region, announced the prosecutor's office.

Detained and charged are two women, both aged 29. They are charged with helping refugees cross the country illegally.