“There is no increased migratory pressure. Quite the opposite, there is a lasting downward tendency,” said Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov during a parliamentary hearing regarding several incidents involving foreign nationals in Sofia.

• There is no migrant crisis in the country, the government says

5,200 attempts to cross the Bulgarian-Turkish border illegally have been prevented since the beginning of this year, over the same period of 2023 their number was 15,600, three times higher, Minister Stoyanov said.

“I am holding here official data from the Ministry of Interior, and it says that in January alone 396 citizens of third countries were detained, 76 of whom upon entry, 109 upon exit, and 211 – illegal stay,” said Bulgarian Socialist Party leader Korneliya Ninova. “You can judge for yourselves what part of what Minister Stoyanov said to believe.”

Minister Kalin Stoyanov responded by saying the Bulgarian Socialist Party was not making a distinction between migrants at the entry and at the exit of the country.