An operation against illegal migration is taking place on the entire territory of Bulgaria and in neighbouring Tutkey, caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev has announced. The operation dubbed Hawala will span several days. “Hawala” is an informal money transfer system used by people smugglers to guarantee the sum before the transfer of the “goods” via an illegal ring. The money is only paid out after the migrants’ arrival at their final destination.

Organizers of trafficking rings from North Africa, the Middle East and Asia along the so-called Balkan Route have been detained, as have migrants at illegal safe houses. Drivers were apprehended after a car chase near Yambol, as well as two traffickers from Georgia.