Bulgaria's border with Turkey is much safer and far fewer migrants cross it, interior minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said during a working visit to Vienna.
Demerdzhiev met Austrian interior minister Gerhard Karner. They discussed guarding the EU's external borders, better security in the Black Sea and cooperation between the two countries. They also covered other bilateral issues and security in the EU.
Demerdzhiev said the route had gone "from one of the most problematic routes in the European Union to one of the best-protected external borders of the Union".
He thanked the European Commission for helping Bulgaria get better technical equipment for the Turkish border. He also thanked Austrian officers who guard it alongside Bulgarian staff and Frontex.
Demerdzhiev said Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece have set up a three-way dialogue, and that they work together very well. He called Karner a colleague and friend, said cooperation with Austria is at a very high level, and said the aim is to deepen and build on it.
Karner said Bulgaria has put large investments into guarding its external borders in recent years. "Thanks to these efforts, this stretch of the EU's external border has become one of the most effectively guarded and one of the safest," he said.
Far fewer people are also being detained on the Austrian-Hungarian border. In week 41 of 2026, only two people were detained there for crossing illegally, the Bulgarian interior ministry said.