Over 3,500 migrants and refugees have escaped camps in Bulgaria in an attempt to reach Western and Central Europe since the start of this year, official figures seen by local media have revealed.
Camps run by the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for Refugees were filled 59 percent over their capacity last September but are now just 86 percent full, the Sega daily newspaper said.
Over 2,210 migrants are estimated to have left processing centers in January, followed by 903 in February and 387 since the beginning of this month.
At the same time, the number of requests from Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, and the United Kingdom asking Bulgaria to take back migrants under the Dublin regulation passed 11,500 in 2016.