Our state border is a ruined yard, and anyone who wants to enter or leave our country through the furrow can do so in no more than 1 hour. This was reported by the Telegraph, referring to its inspection of one of the most attacked places for illegal crossing at the Kalotina border checkpoint in the direction of Serbia, known as the black route to Western Europe.
It turned out that no one guards the old border paths, which are well known to the smugglers. It is these routes that lead to the so-called second door, i.e. output. The first door is the entrance from our southern border in the area of Kapitan Andreevo.
Border police officers patrol mainly on the roads, checking the cargo compartments of buses, trucks and passengers in taxis traveling towards the border. Patrols rarely cross the dirt roads around the border. It relies mainly on state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras. However, apart from recording traffic in the border area, they cannot catch an intruder. The human factor is important here, but the reaction of the border police is not the fastest, our inspection found.
Modern
Otherwise, the northern part of our border with Serbia – from Bregovo to Dragoman, is guarded by a modern automated surveillance system with thermal imaging cameras, which was built for nearly 5 million levs in 2017.
On paper, the cameras are said to be high resolution and have
laser rangefinders with a range of at least 10 km. But there are dozens of dead spots that field experts use to hide from the scope of video surveillance. In principle, the system should ensure continuous border surveillance, detect signs of impending infringement, and track down people and cars crossing the border illegally.
In practice, however, within 60 minutes a person or a group of people can walk on the paths around the Kalotina border checkpoint to reach the furrow and cross it without anyone reacting. The Telegraph team managed to reach the furrow and was checked only on the way back from the border line 15 minutes later. We introduced ourselves as tourist border guards who admire the nature in the area.
Torn
There is a fence at the border with Turkey, but at the exit from Bulgaria through Serbia there is no fence, only remnants with a broken network of the old and long-defunct border branch. Much of the western border remains covered by cameras. The reaction of the border police, who are equipped with modern equipment and jeeps, is significantly slower than that of the glorious Border Troops. According to the former regulations, the cover-up from the border post to the branch takes 12 minutes when activated, in more complex and rugged terrain it is a maximum of 30 minutes. The success of the border guards does not even have a basis for comparison with that of the border police in catching violators of the state border, provided that the service was once performed by conscripts.
Help
Now, in addition to equipment, the Border Police is assisted by forces from other countries. Uniformed people from Poland and Hungary are patrolling the Dragoman area, but again they are guarding only the roads, but not the real green border, where the Border Troops used to be stationed.
The exit fee is 500 euros
500 euros is the average tariff of traffickers to transport a migrant to the exit from Bulgaria at Kalotina. The amount is given in advance to the driver who leaves with the group to cross the border with Serbia. In fact, the amount is for passing through the entire territory of the country, people familiar with the organization of illegal passage through the furrow explained to the Telegraph. According to them, the money was distributed among the trafficker, car drivers, mostly taxis and minibuses. Some of the money is sometimes given as a bribe to border guards to close their eyes. Everything was done by appointment. For enough money, thermal cameras could also “sleep” or look the other way. On the other side of the furrow, border patrols of police with jeeps and soldiers from the Serbian army are housed in tents in each village. Serbs do not rely on cameras like us, but rely on manpower to capture illegally crossed the border on the Bulgarian side.
Greece wants help from the EU, builds refugee centers
In anticipation of a wave of refugees from Afghanistan, Greece is building migrant centers in the Aegean islands. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has warned other EU member states that they should not expect Greece to solve the migrant problem on its own. He insisted on EU financial assistance. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on Saturday that there has been no refugee flow from Afghanistan so far.
However, the number of internally displaced Afghans is in the millions and will increase even more if humanitarian aid from abroad is not significantly increased. Meanwhile, Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa that Austria would not accept any Afghan refugees. Kurz explains that it is very difficult for Afghans to integrate into Austrian society because of the level of education, which is mostly low, as well as the inconsistencies in basic values. According to the Chancellor, Austria is allocating 20 million euros for the protection and assistance of Afghans in the region.
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