Bulgaria opposes ‘unreasonable’ Greek plans for refugee camp near border

Bulgaria’s defense minister has hit out at “unreasonable” Greek plans to build a camp near their border to shelter asylum seekers amid a migration surge from Turkey. “The accommodation by the Greek side of illegal migrants near our border is a pre-requisite for building up of additional tensions. This is not good-neighborly and is unreasonable!” Krasimir Karakachanov said on Facebook.

“The Bulgarian army is on standby, and I guarantee that I won’t allow a new migration wave to our country,” wrote Karakachanov, the leader of the nationalist VMRO party, a junior coalition partner in the government.

The comments came after Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi announced over the weekend that Athens wanted to build two closed centers, in the northern region of Serres that borders Bulgaria and in the Athens area, with space for 1,000 people.

Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov recently welcomed what he said was “zero migration” thanks to a barbed wire fence Bulgaria built on the 259km (160-mile) border with Turkey and his close ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, AFP said.