Net results of EU anti-migrant pilot projects in Bulgaria and Romania

She said people who are not eligible for asylum are being refused entry, while others are being sent home, which she called a “very good outcome”.

The pilot projects were launched in March, with almost 11 million euros awarded to Romania and a further 45 million euros to Bulgaria.

They are part of a broader attempt to convince holdouts like Austria and the Netherlands to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen zone to travel without a visaperhaps in December, probably to the detriment of people trying to seek asylum in South-Eastern European member states.

Sofia has been pushing to convince Austria not to block its accession, amid migrants transiting through the Western Balkans in the hope of reaching Germany.

But Damning reports of widespread corruption within Bulgarian border police and their ties to criminal gangs have only cast a further shadow over Sofia’s Schengen aspirations.

But Johansson remains hopeful, citing the pilot projects, new legislation in both countries, as well as Bulgaria’s increased cooperation with Turkey.

However, accusations and reports from human rights groups in Romania and Bulgaria of illegal pushbacks continue to mount.

THE Bulgarian Helsinki Committee reports that more than 5,000 pushbacks, affecting around 87,000 people, took place at the Bulgarian-Turkish border last year, almost double the number in 2021.

And Border Violence Network (BVN), an NGO, says the level of violence and pushbacks reported last August in Bulgaria has increased.

He has also accused Romanian authorities of continued pushbacks and collective expulsions in the past.

Pilot projects

Previous efforts by this website to obtain a detailed breakdown of the millions of EU dollars used to finance the two pilot projects were refused by the commission, following a freedom of information request.

But the European Commission has since published so-called progress reports on pilot projects.

The reports offer a more detailed look at how public money is used to curb migration.

This includes significant investment in technologies, underground motion detection systems, thermal imaging technologies, integrated surveillance systems and other undefined specialized border equipment.

The companies behind these systems, as well as specific detailed information about the technologies, remain unclear.

Besides the technology, the European Commission says the Romanian pilot project also included nearly 450 joint patrols with its Serbian counterparts.

And in Bulgaria, the pilot helped speed up asylum decisions in Pastrogor, a remote transit center along the border with Turkey.

Of more than 2,000 asylum applications registered in Pastrogor between March and September, nearly 1,500 were rejected as part of an accelerated procedure, the press release said.

It has also drawn up a list of foreign states it considers safe, as part of a plan with the European border agency Frontex, aimed at making it easier for people to return.

Since 2017, Bulgaria has had a 234 km-long border fence with Turkey, equipped with thermal cameras.