TV coverage on the thousands of refugees blocked at the borders of Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary recall bad memories and incites fears in Bulgaria, German Der Tagesspiegel newspaper writes.

In the end of 2013 the drastic increase of the number of Syrian refugees entering the European country through the Turkish border inspired scenarios of catastrophic living conditions in the crowded refugee camps throughout the country. The situation is different at the moment. The five refugee centres in Bulgaria can accept more people as only 67% of their capacity is used, as announced by the Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees recently.

Since the start of the year, a total of 9,217 people have asked for a special status in Bulgaria. No matter how many of the applications will be approved, the statistical data is explicit – more than half of those, who have received asylum in the small European country, have already left it to seek a better life in West Europe.