Bulgaria may extend Turkish border fence to bar Syrian, Iraqi refugees

Sofia, 20 August 2014 (MIA) - Bulgaria may extend the fence at its border with Turkey to stop more refugees from Syria and Iraq entering illegally, a top interior ministry official said on Wednesday.

The Balkan country is considering adding 130 km of barbed-wire fencing to an existing 33-km fence along the 240-km southeastern border which, the interior ministry's Chief Secretary Svetoslav Lazarov, said would save 2 million levs ($1.36 million) a month on policing the area.

"It would be a prohibitively facility," Lazarov told reporters. "Our country has enough border points and those who want to come as a refugee can go through them."

More than 10,000 refugees, mainly Syrians, entered Bulgaria illegally last year from Turkey and, in an attempt to limit the influx, authorities deployed over 1,000 police officers.

Bulgarian authorities said the Black Sea state could face an even greater influx in the coming months due to intensified fighting in Iraq in recent weeks.