Is a new deadly route being (re-)established in the Black Sea?

Publiziert am 22. September 2017 von mf

The escape route from Turkey via the black sea was rarely used in 2013 and 2014 before the so called refugee crisis in Europe reached its peak. Since the recent crackdown on the Aegean Sea route in the last months, more and more people on the run are again trying to move from Turkey via the Black Sea to reach Bulgaria or Romania. Since the beginning of 2017, already 649 migrants were caught, while they were trying to cross via the Black Sea. In addition, the case of 12 migrants, locked on a merchant vessel traveling back and forth between Istanbul and Odessa came to light.

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10 people die on Bulgaria’s road because of the European border regime

Publiziert am 6. Juni 2017 von mf

On Sunday, the 4th of June a van crashed into a tree on the Trakia motorway between Plovdiv and Sofia, near the town of Pazardzhik. The result of this road crash are 9 dead people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria plus the 16-year old Bulgarian teenager, who drove the car without a driving license. Until today, two migrants are still in critical condition. Additionally four other migrants have to stay in hospital. The border police  Commissioner Svetlan Kichikov stated that, the border police registered “2054 illegal attempts to cross the border“ in 2017 so far.

Every year migrants are dying in Bulgaria, because they seek for security and shelter in the EU. Many are risking their lives, which are already in danger in their home countries. The smuggling business in Bulgaria is flourishing, this year already 53 people were arrested for transporting people ‚illegally‘. Some of them are even accused of trafficking people via the airport of Sofia.

The reason (among others) why people are still being ’smuggled‘ through Bulgaria is the official closing of the, so called, humanitarian corridor (also known as „balkan-route“) in March 2016, which was forced by the governments of several European countries. Without a legal corridor and being denied safe traveling such provoked ‚accidents‘ will happen again and again.

Photo credit: Bulgarian National Television (BNT)

Update: The UNHCR came out with a report in August which added together the numbers of interceptions at the Turkish-Greek and the Turkish-Bulgarian land borders from January-August 2017 and mentioned a quantity of 17,067 people. Only in August a number of 464 was intercepted at the Bulgarian-Turkish border by Turkish land forces.

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Only 13 refugees in Bulgaria receive social assistance from the state

Publiziert am 8. Mai 2017 von mf

In March 2017, it came out to be known that only 13 refugees in Bulgaria receive social money as a social help from the Bulgarian state, because of their disabilities. Apart from that, no other refugee in Bulgaria gets cash in some form of subsistence. The 65 Leva (33EUR)  a month were already taken away in 2015, two years ago.

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A huge number of migrants leave Bulgaria

Publiziert am 23. März 2017 von mf

Recently, the State Agency for Refugee (SAR) and the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior (MoI) stated in a report that already thousands of people had left Bulgaria, this year. In January 2017, more than 2210 migrants had already left the country and in February 903 people were reported to be ‚disappeared‘. In March more than 400 people left Bulgaria. By the end of February, Bulgarian authorities stopped 1022 migrants at the Bulgarian-Serbian border. For 2016, the SAR granted a lot less the refugee status for asylum seekers than 2015. Nevertheless, the applications for asylum in 2016 were only 5% less than 2016. Until the end of January 2017, the SAR recorded 421 new asylum applications.

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Refugee family with a status has to leave Belene

Publiziert am 8. März 2017 von mf

Some days ago, a Syrian family, who already received a status, was welcomed by the Catholic church in Belene in the north of Bulgaria. But this was a problem for Krasimir Todorov, a municipal councilor, who organized some locals to protest against the family and the priest Paolo Cortesi, who helped the family.

Last year, the Syrian family came originally via Greece within the relocation sheme and was coordinated from the State Agency for Refugees in Bulgaria (SAR) to the Catholic community of Belene. Now the family has to leave again, because of the tensions in the city of Belene. Fr. Cortesi announced, the church is going to stop its charity-activity in the town.

As of today, 07.03.2017,

every [charity] activities of the church are on hold. If you need anything contact the mayor of Belene whose duties are to take care of the citizens in need.

Father Paolo Cortesi

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Mayor of Elin Pelin tells Syrian family with humanitarian status to leave

Publiziert am 28. Februar 2017 von mf

The mayor, Ivaylo Simeonov, of the Bulgarian town of Elin Pelin has told a Syrian family with a humanitarian status (for Bulgaria) to leave and is refusing to issue them ID documents. The Syrian family, who has arrived with their six years old sun in the country, stated that leaving the town is no option, because the same problems would occur somewhere else. The eldest son of the family, who already lived and worked three years in Bulgaria, had organized the accommodation in Elin Pelin. In the following days Bulgarian media echoed xenophobic, racist and anti-humanitarian statements from different persons, without opposing it.

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Human Rights are still negotiable in Bulgaria

Publiziert am 13. Februar 2017 von mf

According to the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), 19,418 asylum applications were registered in Bulgaria (mainly by Afghan, Syrians and Iraqi nationals) last year. From all Afghan asylum seekers, 2,5% of them got a positive decision. Currently, the SAR suggests that 3,728 asylum seekers are accommodated in the open centers and the Migration Directorate of the Ministry of Interior stated that 984 are living in “closed-type“ centers. Now, two reception centers, managed by the SAR, are existing as closed centers: One part of the center in the outskirt of Harmanli, which opened after the riot in November 2016 and another one opened in the same center already in August.

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Two more migrants die in Bulgaria’s Borderland

Publiziert am 7. Januar 2017 von mf

On the 6th of January, the Bulgarian Border Police made the case of two more dead people public, who were found by villagers near the village of Izvor in the region of Burgas near the Strandzha mountain massif. They had died of exposure to low temperatures. It was reported that the two Iraqi men were 28 and 35 years old. Only four days ago a Somali woman died in the same region.

Every year several migrants die in Bulgaria on their way to cross Bulgaria’s borderland – especially in the winter period. Actually nobody knows how many people died all in all in Bulgaria’s borderlands in the last years, because there is no statistics available. Often migrants who passed through the region report about corpses, which they had seen in the woods. The migrants try to cross in the mountain region where there is no fence blocking the way. Bordermonitoring Bulgaria (BMB) calls the Bulgarian authorities to rethink their politics towards refugees as a whole and asks them additionally to collect statistics about the various deaths which happen in the border region.

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Breaking News: Woman dies near the Bulgarian-Turkish border

Publiziert am 3. Januar 2017 von mf

Yesterday, the Bulgarian border police found the corpse of a woman near the village of Ravadinovo in southeastern Bulgaria. A group of 31 migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia, which was detained one day before, said to the authorities they had to leave the woman, because she was too weak to go on. Two other members of the group, 14-and 16-years old teenagers, were brought to hospital because of frostbite.

This is the first human being who was killed by the European border system in Bulgaria, in 2017. Bordermonitoring Bulgaria (BMB) argues that the new installed European Border and Coast Guard Agency, which came into force on October the 6th 2016 at Bulgaria’s Kapitan Andreevo Border Checkpoint, cannot stop incidents like this. Therefore, it is tremendously important to create legal passages to prevent these kind of tragedies.

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„It stinks.“

Publiziert am 3. Januar 2017 von mf

The following contribution is an English translation of a report, which was written by the human rights lawyer Valeria Ilareva, from the Foundation for Access to Rights (FAR) which was published in December 2016. The tranlsation was done by Daniel.

My day begins with a legal hearing at 9am. The case is of the more serious sort, but I’m eased by the thought that we’re at a judge. Meaning that among „the judges“ exist only a small number of actual judges – those trying to decide their cases objectively and without biases. Even in the event of a verdict to your client’s disadvantage, you nevertheless know that the hearing was carried out with humane attitude and the outcome of the lawsuit wasn’t predetermined. During the hearing the judge acts unusually irritated and reacts sharply on the preliminary submitted request for taking of evidence. She mentions that the most overburdened judges are facing disciplinary procedures for delaying lawsuits. I answer that I understand her and that I am doing everything within my possibilities not to slow down the case. I indeed understand her. At 11am the judges from the Sofia Regional Court hold a protest in front of the Supreme Judicial Council.

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