Migrant shot dead by border guard as leaders search for agreement on crisis

Bulgarian border guards have shot and killed a migrant trying to enter the country from Turkey. The man was with a crowd of people from Afghanistan when he was shot near the town of Sredets and died on his way to hospital. “Our border patrol of border guards and police in the area had stumbled on 50 offenders, who illegally entered the country,”  interior ministry official Georgi Kostov said. “They put up resistance during the arrest. One of the officers fired warning shots and, in his words, one of the migrants was wounded by a ricochet and later died.”

Our intensified meetings with Turkish leaders… in the last couple of weeks were devoted to one goal: stemming the migratory flows that go via Turkey to the EU. The action plan is a major step in this direction.

EU council president Donald

The incident happened as European leaders met to agree a united approach to secure the group’s external borders. The agreement would also involve the extended use of the European border force, Frontex. EU council president Donald Tusk said: “Frontex (is) to be given right to return irregular migrants on its own initiative and become more proactive in protecting external borders." Details are also being thrashed out of a deal offered to Turkey, which has asked for £2.3bn in aid to help it cope with an influx of migrants. It also hopes to use the crisis as leverage for its ambitions to join the EU. Meanwhile, Hungary will decide on Friday whether to close its border with Croatia to stem the flow of migrants.

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