Five Bulgarian right-wing parties, whose supporters have largely backed anti-government protests since mid-June, set up on Friday a joint coalition, hoping to become the third biggest political force in the country ahead of possible elections next year.

"Our objective is to unite the citizens in order to eliminate the mafia in power and put in place rapid measures to overcome the political, economic and demographic crisis," the parties from the new Reformist bloc said.

Bulgaria's foreign minister said Tuesday he had postponed a December trip to Britain because of a row triggered by London's fears of an influx of Bulgarians and Romanians next year.

"We felt the atmosphere was not suitable," Kristian Vigenin was quoted by Bulgarian media as saying on the sidelines of a Brussels meeting of EU foreign ministers.

The U.N. refugee agency chief for Europe urged Bulgaria on Tuesday to respond swiftly to what he called a human emergency in shelters struggling with an influx of Syrians.

"It is a human emergency for the people in these centers. There will be no Christmas for them. Things need to happen in the next couple of weeks," Vincent Cochetel of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told journalists in Sofia.

Bulgaria denounced British plans to restrict EU migrants' access to welfare benefits as "discriminatory" on Thursday, saying fears Britain would soon be overrun by eastern Europeans were unfounded.

"We should first look at what effects the opening of Britain's labor market from January 1, 2014 will have," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin told journalists in Sofia.

Bulgarian authorities Monday slammed the formation of nightly "civil patrols" by nationalists in high-immigrant areas in the capital.

"The setting up of the so called 'civil patrols' has not been coordinated with the police in any way.... We will not allow any acts by people, trying to impose order on the streets of Sofia by themselves," chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov, interior minister Tsvetlin Yovchev and state security chief Vladimir Pisanchev said in a joint statement.

Bulgaria pushed on Wednesday for an EU-wide refugee strategy as it struggles to cope with a mass influx of asylum-seekers, the majority of them Syrian.

"We have repeatedly highlighted the need for a common European refugee system that would allow flexible resource management and the possibility for refugee relocation within the bloc on the basis of objective criteria," Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said after a national security council on the refugee issue.

Thousands of Bulgarian public-sector employees rallied Wednesday to demand government action to help the working poor, as angry students kept up a protest calling for the cabinet's resignation.

Waving purple labor-union flags, several thousand miners, civil servants, doctors, nurses, teachers and metallurgy and energy-sector employees marched on parliament carrying large banners with slogans such as "STOP misery" and "We do not want lifelong labor for miserable pensions."

Amnesty International criticized the "inhumane conditions" at an overcrowded Bulgarian refugee camp Tuesday as more than 100 asylum-seekers, many fleeing the conflict in Syria, started a hunger strike in protest.

"We witnessed the deplorable conditions where some 1,000 asylum-seekers are being held in metal containers, tents and a dilapidated building of a former military complex," Amnesty researcher Barbora Cernusankova said after visiting the Harmanli camp in southeastern Bulgaria.

Around 20,000-30,000 Bulgarians took part in political rallies for and against the embattled Socialist government on Saturday, according to a media tally.

Some 10,000-15,000 gathered in the capital Sofia in support of Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, who has braved months of demonstrations calling for him to resign.

The U.N.'s refugee agency Friday said it was alarmed by reports that Greece and Bulgaria were turning back Syrians fleeing their war-ravaged homeland, forcing them to return to overloaded Turkey.

"Push-backs and prevention of entry can put asylum-seekers at further risk and expose them to additional trauma," United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters, saying that all states must cease such practices immediately.