(ANSA-AFP) - SOFIA, FEB 8 - Bulgaria faces mounting accusations that it is abusing people trying to cross its border with Turkey, with asylum seekers saying they have been pushed back, locked up, stripped and beaten. The EU member serves as a gateway into the bloc and is trying to tighten the border to stop a rising number of people seeking to cross, which has reached levels unseen since 2015. "Since the beginning of last year we have been seeing very intensive and brutal pushbacks of people," a practice that is illegal in the EU, said Diana Dimova, head of Bulgarian refugee help group Mission Wings.

Asylum seekers' testimonies collected by AFP and reports by the European border guard agency Frontex likewise point to the use of brutal methods at the Balkan nation's southeastern frontier.

Border police thwarted 164,000 "irregular crossing" attempts in 2022, compared to 55,000 in 2021, interior ministry figures show. (ANSA-AFP).