Refugees at the accommodation centre in the Bulgarian town of Harmanli. Photo: BGNES

The chairperson of the State Agency for Refugees (DAB) Nikola Kazakov stated on Saturday that Bulgaria should grant over 10 000 people with refugee status by the end of the year.

Kazakov said that most of the refugees in Bulgaria were Kurds from Syria and Iraq and nearly half of the newcomers in 2015 were illiterate.

In his words, a completely new strategy for solving the refugee problem was already prepared, Kazakov revealed in an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio.

According to him, several strategies were in place until the end of 2014, which would be replaced by a single, united strategy that takes into account the new challenges.

Kazakov added that the European Commission has readiness to allocate additional funds for urgent measures addressing the refugee problem, next to the EUR 10 M that had already been negotiated.