Authorities in France find it difficult to expel illegal Bulgarian immigrants after the country’s EU accession in 2007.

French immigration minister Brice Hortefeux had failed to carry out his task, given to him by president Nikolas Sarkozy, to expel 25 000 illegal immigrants form France in 2007, Bulgarian news agency BTA said.

The new status of Bulgarians and Romanians after EU accession of the two countries was one of the reasons for his failure, Hortefeux said as quoted by the French Liberacion.

Currently, it was more difficult to expel Bulgarians and Romanians, except for Roma people from these countries, the newspaper said.