Bulgaria, Greece and Türkiye discuss joint border security actions

The interior ministers of Bulgaria, Greece and Türkiye discussed border security at a trilateral meeting in Athens, the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) reported. Bulgaria’s caretaker Minister of Interior Emil Dechev said that discussions covered topics such as illegal trafficking of migrants, drugs, weapons, and the use of such illegal trafficking routes for the infiltration of terrorist groups into Europe.

“First of all, we found that there is a positive trend of a decrease in the number of migrants crossing the borders of the three countries, thanks to counteraction efforts”, Emil Dechev said.

“Greece is sending teams to assist Bulgaria at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. We have deployed a Border Police vessel to support Greek border police in combating migrant trafficking along the sea border”, Minister Dechev added.

“Our Greek colleagues are satisfied that after our accession to Schengen, there have been no problems along the Bulgarian-Greek border. This is a shared conclusion. Cooperation with our Turkish colleagues is also at a very high level”, Emil Dechev said.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov