“Good old Europe“ is checking the borders of Bulgaria

Publiziert am 12. Dezember 2015 von mf

As many European countries have already considered to build walls at their borders, two politicians of Great Britain and Germany took recently a look at the European border regime, that is partly managed by Europeans pourest country. Lately, the flow of migrants that are entering Bulgaria grew, many of them were arrested and confronted with violence. David Cameron, who visited Bulgaria at the beginning of December,  examined different places at the border and the fence. He spoke there with border guards and took a look at the monitors and technical devices at Elhovo police station. The Guardian cited him with the following words:

[…] They have got a sea border that they protect, they have got a land border with Turkey that they protect and I think there are real lessons to be learned here about [how] if you give it the priority you can get it done. So we should continue to support them with the important work they do.

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Silent crossing through Bulgaria ends up in registration process in Serbia

Publiziert am 8. November 2015 von mf

Most of the refugees, crossing via Bulgaria, arrive in Dimitrovgrad, a little town, that is 4 km from the Serbian-Bulgarian Border and 60m away from Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. They have to register at a camp, that is managed by the Serbian border police. Registered people have to leave the country within three days. Some are walking days before they finally arrive the police station. Taxi Drivers are waiting in front and offer a ride to Belgrade for 200 Euro. Usually they buy a bus ticket to Belgrade for 25 Euro, money that is sometimes provided by volunteers. The volunteers camp is located in the same area as the police station with the tent of the red cross and the presence of the UNHCR. At the end of the working day, the representation of the UNHCR and the Red Cross closed before 4 pm.

Roughly 300 people, later trying to move on for seeking shelter in other European countries, are arriving in Dimitrovgrad day by day. Most of them are young men, nevertheless, from time to time, there are families that arrive with them. Two unaccompanied minors, Jamal and Sami*, explained what they witnessed in the region at the Turkish-Bulgarian border: “We saw two dead bodies laying on the ground. They did not look well anymore. After the police caught us, they were cutting our backpacks.“

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Bulgaria’s Border Police cooperates with hunters

Publiziert am 22. Oktober 2015 von mf

One could think it was just a bad coincidence when a group of 19 hunters met a group of refugees near the Turkish-Bulgarian border, near of the village of Evrenozovo (near Malko Tarnovo) last Saturday. After the hunters called the police, the group of 30 migrants was arrested by the Bulgarian border police. On the very same day, hundreds of right wing protesters walked on the streets of Sofia to support the police officer that shot the Afghani man.

Only a few days later Venko Kalinchev, the secretary of the hunting and fishing association Elen (Deer) in Kyustendil stated that there is a close working together with the Bulgarian Border Police and  in the region of the village of Dolno Kobile (near Kjustendil), several groups were detected by the hunters. That statement was made not even one week after the fatal shooting of a young Afghan man in the Bulgarian forest.

Meanwhile volunteers at the Serbian city of Dimitrovgrad, close to the Serbian-Bulgarian border report about “multiple independent reports of police robbing, beating, and imprisoning refugees“ in Bulgaria. Due to the fence people walk long distances through the mountains and forests to reach Sofia and afterwards the borders of Serbia. At the moment about 200 people cross the Serbian border on a daily basis.

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No tears for killed Afghani migrant

Publiziert am 16. Oktober 2015 von mf

Last night, at around 22h, an Afghani man was shot dead in Bulgaria by border police. The murder has taken place in Sredets in southern Bulgaria, where a group of  more than 50 migrants have been stopped by the police. The first information that reached media outlets was that the group resisted arrest which has prompted the border patrol to fire. What actually has happened is that the men were racially profiled as, according to the General Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Georgi Kostov, “they were obviously not Bulgarian citizens.” Moreover, added Kostov “There is definitely a difference between the profiles of the intruders from the summer months [and those arrested now]…They are most probably economic emigrants (sic!) but this is yet to be determined.”

The immediate reaction of the Ministry of Interior was to distort the event and to build upon a cluster of phantasmagoric stories so as to avoid a scandal. Some of these stories included: two groups of Afghanis invaded the Bulgarian border and opened fire; the two groups were heavily armed; the border police shot in the air as a warning; the bullet ricocheted; the bullet hit a bridge, bounced back and hit the illegal refugee right in the rear. Little did the Ministry of Interior know that a fatal shooting of a guilty border crosser will not result in the stirring of a scandal. In fact, Bulgarian politicians want more blood. This particular spectacle of death was not enough for them. Not surprisingly, Valeri Simeonov, leader of the Patriotic Front, a right-wing nationalist coalition which holds 7% of the seats in the Parliament, immediately requested that Border Police “shoots meat [at the border].” Bozhidar Dimitrov, Head of the National Historical Museum and a former Head of the Agency of the Bulgarians Abroad went as far as to petition for awarding the border policemen who were involved in the incident with the highest order. Tatyana Doncheva, a jurist who has defended companies such as Multigroup, similarly, called for illimitable solidarity with Border Police and suggested that the General Secretary should not feel and show guilt as such events are “normal” for border regions.

The European border regime has taken yet another victim. This is not the first fatal accident in Bulgaria. Just five months ago two Yazidis froze to death on Turkish territory after being pushed back by Bulgarian Border Police. Solidarity groups in Bulgaria call for protests in front of Bulgarian embassies worldwide.

Update: Some days later, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee made a statement about the incident and the vicepresident of the German State Parliament, in Brandenburg, filed a lawsuit at the Justice ministry in Sofia.

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Europe at the Borderline

Publiziert am 27. Juli 2015 von mf

After the failure of negations concerning the European quota of refugees, the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, called Bulgaria and Hungary „exceptional cases“ because of their big „migration pressure“. In addition to the border built between Bulgaria and Turkey, now the Hungarian government decided to build a wall on its border with Serbia. You can read Raia Apostolova’s analysis on the current situation here. The externalization of the European border regime proceeds in full force. Turkey has demanded that Europe needs to manage its migration in a better way, so as to stop the refugees who enter the continent and better secure its gates. Already in May 2015, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece signed for a common contact center and agreed upon the establishment of joint border patrols. The circumstances for refugees in Turkey are not improving. You can read Mathias Fiedler’s article on the situation here.

The route via Bulgaria is still one of the favored ones. In Bulgaria, more than 9.000 people entered since the beginning of the year. In May 2015, two Yezidis died on Turkish territory after contact with the Bulgarian Border Police. Meanwhile, the police union in Bulgaria staged a protest against the working conditions at the border, which encompass increased work hours.

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No free breakfast for asylum-seekers in Bulgaria

Publiziert am 31. März 2015 von mf

Just until recently, asylum-seekers in Bulgaria received 65 BGN (33EUR) a month  as part of the state’s social welfare designated to people in need. We are worried to learn however, that even this moderate social provision will be taken away from those seeking protection as of April 1st. This is part of the government’s efforts to both make Bulgaria unattractive destination but also because of the severe socio-economic situation in the country, which deepens exclusion by the day.

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The Bulgarian EU border: to anticipate between death and life

Publiziert am 26. März 2015 von mf

As any other peripheral EU border, the Bulgarian one is like a swing that oscillates between life and death. Annually, thousands are trying to cross it in order to find a better life but some, instead, find a fatal end. In Bulgaria, we rarely hear about the thousands who died at sea while trying to approach the Mediterranean shores. When we do, often such news leaves us in a sheer shock as we watch hundreds of bodies covering the coasts in Italy or Greece.

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Still no good life for refugees in Bulgaria

Publiziert am 24. März 2015 von mf

The situation for refugees in Bulgaria still exhibits extreme social vulnerability. As the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC) and the European Council on Refugees (ECRE) pointed out in a report from January 2015 the push-backs, the lack of integration and discrimination against asylumseekers in Bulgaria are continuing. Meanwhile, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry deployed troops on the Bulgarian-Turkish border and Boyko Borisov, Bulgaria’s Prime Minister announced the extension of the fence project, which will now comprise 160 km.

Violent push-backs at the border are still taking place. One such violation of international norms took place on March 25 as a result of which Mohammed Jawad Kadima (30) and Elias Murad (35) died after freezing to death because of their impossibility to move while sustaining severe injuries on their limbs. A witness of the incident says the following about his experience with the Bulgarian Border Police:

We were 12 people. At the border we got arrested. They beaten us, massively. The bulgarian police took our mobiles, our money that they could find and all objects of value. One of the refugees was not able to walk and his legs couldn’t carry him anymore. The police called us to go back to Turkey. We returned to Turkey.

We remind our readers that violent push-backs often take place at the border. For more information, read our report from July 2014.

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Report now available in German translation

Publiziert am 22. Dezember 2014 von mf

We are glad to inform you, that our new report is available in German language under the heading „Gefangen in Europas Morast: Die Situation von Asylsuchenden und Flüchtlingen in Bulgarien“ is published. You can download the German Version here.

Update: See as well the Vice News episode „Trapped in Bulgaria“ from the  television show „Europe or die“. In January a protest, staged by refugees, took place in Harmanli against xenophobia (1, 2).

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New hunger strike, push-backs and death in the border region

Publiziert am 21. September 2014 von mf

According to information received from asylum seekers, there has been a hunger strike in the detention facility in Lyubimets for the last few days. Nearly 100 people, including women and children, have taken part in the protest action. The reasons behind the strike, according to this information, lie in the bad living and sanitary conditions in the camp, where the toilets are unbearably filthy. People want to leave the camp. Hammad [1] a participant in the strike, said: „Please tell the media that we don’t want to claim asylum here, because Bulgaria is a very poor country.“ On 18th September the strikers stopped the protest, because the authorities promised that the conditions will improve. „If things won’t get better, then we will continue“, Hammad added. At the moment there are about 400 people detained in Lyubimets.

Meanwhile push-backs at the Bulgarian-Turkish border continue. Human Rights Watch reported several incidents in August and September 2014. On 17th September, Bordermonitoring Bulgaria (BMB) was informed of another push back that happened the same day. According to information, received by a family member of the syrian asylum seekers who attempted to come into Bulgaria, the two families with children had reached Malko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. While on their way to the police station, where they intended to state they were seeking asylum, a police car stopped them, and the officers took their phones and some of their money. The families were then asked to leave Bulgaria. When they refused, the police threatened them and sent them back to Turkey.

Update: In November, 4 asylum-seekers from Syria and Iraq died while trying to cross the border to Serbia. All of them were registered by the State Ageny for Refugees (SAR) and waited for their status. Some days later, another Syrian refugee was found close to the border of Malko Tarnovo.

[1] Name changed by BMB.

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