There is no risk of migration flow to shift toward Bulgaria if the EU closes the so-called western Balkans route used by migrants to reach western Europe, Prime Minister Boyko Borisov has said. “At present, we don’t have to worry but at the same time we have to be extremely vigilant,” BNT public TV broadcaster quoted Borisov as saying before a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels on Monday called to discuss cooperation in tackling the worst migration crisis in Europe since WWII. “We have put in place enough equipment to monitor the territory deep inside and halt a wave, if it comes,” Borisov added. Hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, most of them arriving from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in Turkey, have travelled on to Greece and from there to Western Europe, using the Western Balkans route via non-EU Macedonia and Serbia. Borisov also reiterated Bulgaria’s view that all migrants should pass only through the designated border crossings. A proposal to be discussed at the summit calls for the closure of the western Balkan route and the return to Turkey of all irregular migrants who had made it to the EU. While Germany has described the possibility of such move as speculation, France has said that the route will be closed, according to BNT. The number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece picked up in recent days while other countries lying on the Balkans route capped the number of people they allow to pass via their territory. As a result, thousands of migrants and refugees remain stuck inside Greece, including at the country’s border with Macedonia.
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