Bulgaria has invited Austrian politician Wolfgang Sobotka to the Bulgarian-Turkish border as part of efforts to woo Vienna into agreeing to the idea of the Balkan nation joining the border-free Schengen zone by the end of 2023. But human rights groups urge caution as violent migrant pushbacks, organized crime and corruption are still widespread in the country.
Austria's President of the National Council Wolfgang Sobotka visited Bulgaria to tour the European Union's external border with Turkey on Tuesday (October 10). He was accompanied by his Bulgarian counterpart Rosen Zhelyazkov.
Bulgaria had invited the Austrian politician as part of ongoing efforts to convince Vienna that the country's approximately 250-kilometer-long land border with Turkey is well guarded and protected.
Austria and the Netherlands have so far blocked Bulgaria's accession to Schengen – Europe's visa-free travel zone – since December 2022, chiefly over concerns that the Balkan country was being too lax on irregular migration.
Austria, led by a conservative government, also opposed Romania's admission to Schengen.
Read more: Exclusive: Why are migrant pushbacks from Bulgaria to Turkey soaring?
Bulgaria to deploy drones at border with Turkey
Since the beginning of the year, there have been at least 158,000 failed attempts of irregular border crossings into the EU, according to Bulgarian border police. This shows a notable increase from 2022, when only 115,000 were registered, Zhelyazkov told Sobotka.
Bulgaria's external EU border has been protected with a 234-kilometer long border fence since 2017, which is equipped with thermal imaging cameras. From 2024 onwards, drones will also be deployed while video surveillance technology is to be extended a further 110 kilometers, German news agency DPA reported.
"We highly appreciate Bulgaria's efforts to protect the EU external border highly. For us, Bulgaria is an important partner," Bulgarian news agency BTA cited Sobotka as saying.
Bulgaria, the poorest EU member state, has become an important transit country for migrants hoping to continue traveling towards western and central Europe, such as Germany.
Bulgarian-Turkish border sees rise in pushbacks and violence
Radoslav Kulekov, the deputy chief of Bulgaria's border police, said migrants were "extremely aggressive" and often try to climb the border fence from Turkey. They cut holes in the fence and use ladders to jump over it, Kulekov added.
Read more: Exclusive: Corruption and criminal networks permeate Bulgarian migration and asylum
The Bulgarian-Turkish border has also seen a growing number of pushbacks and violence against migrants in the past year, prompting human rights workers to demand accountability.
Last year alone, an estimated 5,270 pushbacks affecting 87,650 people occurred at the Bulgarian-Turkish border, according to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, a human rights non-profit. Actual numbers, however, are believed to be much higher.
The figure is almost double the number registered in 2021 – with some 2,510 pushbacks involving nearly 45,000 people. In 2020, the Committee reported that around 15,170 people were affected.
Concerns over rampant corruption and organized crime
Brussels has also expressed hesitancy in Bulgaria's Schengen accession due to concerns over widespread corruption and organized crime in the country, which often are also intricately intertwined with migration, human smuggling and trafficking.
Bulgaria has seen numerous investigations into border police officers who have taken part in migrant smuggling and trafficking schemes.
Paying bribes to Bulgarian police such as at the Bulgarian-Turkish border remains commonplace, Diana Dimova, the head of the Bulgarian human rights organization Mission Wings, told InfoMigrants.
But Bulgaria appears to be in luck: The EU Commission has repeatedly stressed that both Bulgaria and Romania fulfil all requirements to join Schengen.
On September 15, the European Commission officially ended its monitoring of the judiciary and the rule of law in Bulgaria and Romania.
It was found that both countries had carried out important reforms in recent years, reassured Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the commission would continue to regularly assess the state of the rule of law, as it does with all other EU member states.