HRW Criticizes Bulgaria over Treatment of Refugees
Bulgaria must stop the forceful expulsion of Syrian and other refugees and end alleged abuses against asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Tuesday.
"Bulgarian border police have been summarily and forcibly expelling third country nationals to Turkey without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum," the organization said.
It urged the government in Sofia to "end summary expulsions" and "stop beatings, use of electric shocks, and other abuses against migrants at the border with Turkey."
The European Union's poorest country, Bulgaria was overwhelmed last year by the arrival of over 11,000 asylum seekers -- mostly Syrians fleeing civil war at home -- through its porous southeastern border with Turkey.
The numbers surpassed tenfold the annual toll of refugees arriving in the country before the Syrian crisis.
In an attempt to contain the influx, the government deployed 1,300 police officers to the border last November and started building a 35 kilometer (21-mile) fence in the most difficult area.
It also set up makeshift shelters in former schools and army barracks in an attempt to deal with the new arrivals.
But HRW said it had recorded a number of incidents of alleged excessive force by border guards after interviewing 177 refugees in several shelters in both Bulgaria and Turkey.
The cases included verbal threats but also beatings and instances when dogs were set on irregular border crossers to make them turn back.
"Bulgaria of course, is faced with a humanitarian challenge and its capacity to meet that challenge is limited," Bill Frelick, the organization’s refugee rights program director says in the report.
"Even with limited capacity, however, shoving people back over the border is no way to respect the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants," he added.
Asylum seekers who managed to cross into Bulgaria complained about the use of batons and electric tasers in preliminary detention centers at the border, where they were given scant food and forced to sleep on the ground even in the middle of winter.
Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev ruled out abuses at the border, saying that representatives of the European border management agency Frontex have been overseeing the actions of the Bulgarian police.
Bulgaria's refugee agency chief Nikolay Chirpanliev also said he was "extremely indignant" at the findings of the report.
HRW did point to some positive developments, such as improving conditions in the shelters and faster decisions in what used to be a "chronically slow asylum process."
Source: Agence France Presse
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