Macedonia

Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has said that although it is not an EU member country, Serbia is ready to take in a number of migrants.

A memorandum of cooperation on refugees and migrants was signed on Friday in Ohrid, Macedonia by ministers from Macedonia, Austria, Serbia and Hungary.

Interior Minister Mitko Cavkov represented Macedonia, Johanna Mikl-Leitner siged for Austria, Nebojsha Stefanovic for Serbia and Deputy Interior Minister Krisztina Berta for Hungary.

Vladimir Pisanchev can contribute to Bulgaria's cooperation in Greece in tackling the migrant influx through the Balkans, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov told journalists on Thursday.

Bulgaria detained 125 migrants on Wednesday night in Sofia for illegally crossing the country without submitting asylum requests, in a further sign of policy divisions in the Balkans on how to handle the flow of westward-bound refugees.

Bulgaria is handling well the flow of legal migrants arriving in the country, according to Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova.

"We manage to deal with the migration problem, registering all those who enter legally, taking their fingerprints," Bachvarova told parliament on Wednesday.

Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova has ruled out that the organized criminal gang smuggling migrants into Austria could be based in Bulgaria.

The five men arrested at the Bulgaria-Macedonia border last week had symbols of the Islamic State (IS) group on their mobile phones, Sputniknews claims citing Russian and Macedonian media.

The men attempting to cross into Bulgaria were detained after offering a bribe to border police.

Bulgaria should have called a regional summit to tackle the migrant crisis, instead of mobilizing the army to guard its borders, a recent analysis reads on the EUInside.

It says the former option would have helped see what is most needed by countries affected by the influx of migrants such as Serbia, Macedonia and Greece.

EU-mediated talks held on Wednesday on the appointment of a new special prosecutor in Macedonia to deal with illegal surveillance claims are expected to resume at the weekend.

Monday is the unofficial deadline set by the EU facilitator in the talks, former Belgian MP Peter Vanhoutte, for an agreement on the legal framework to be submitted to parliament for adoption.

The group of 25 troops sent to help Border Police at the Macedonian border only has the right to monitor but not to detain, let alone shoot, according to Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov.