(VOVworld) - The European Union has decided to give Bulgaria 108 million euros in emergency funding to help it protect its borders with Turkey, one of the main routes for illegal migrants to enter Europe. President of the EU Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said on Friday that in the coming weeks, the financial support from the EU may be raised to 160 million euros, as requested Bulgaria.

Bulgarian border policemen stand near the barbed wire fence constructed on the Bulgarian-Turkish border, near Lesovo, Bulgaria September 14, 2016. (Photo: Reuters)

Over 1 million refugees fled conflict and poverty in their home countries in the Middle East and Africa to Europe in 2015. Most of them came to Greece via Turkey, which shares the border with Bulgaria.

Over the past two days, Libyan patrols intercepted some 1,425 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Most were from sub-Saharan African countries and about one third were women and children.

Most migrants trying to reach Europe by boat across the central Mediterranean head for Italy from Libya. In the past 3 years, Italian forces have saved 400,000 migrants on inflatable boats, used by North African traffickers for perilous journey from Libya to the promised land of Europe.