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05/10/2022 – 02/11/2022
- In Burgas, hospitals have bodies of unidentified migrants who were mostly found by hunters in the forest and cannot be released until their identities are established.
21/09/2022 – 05/10/2022
- The Bulgarian Coast Guards rescued 38 people trying to reach Romania from the Black Sea. According to the Minister of Interior, this is the first incident of this type to be registered since 2014.
19/07/2022 – 21/09/2022
- Six Bulgarian organisations denounced the pushback of an Afghani man granted humanitarian status in Bulgaria. At the same time, many Bulgarian CSOs co-signed a letter demanding that the state takes more responsibility for people seeking protection in Bulgaria, by stopping the illegal practice of pushbacks, stopping the use of violence against asylum-seekers crossing the border and offering adequate channels to present claims for asylum and international protection.
- In the end of August 2022, a bus with 47 migrants including men, women and children crashed during a chase into a police car and two police officers were killed. The bus was driven by a 15-year-old Syrian unaccompanied minor from the refugee camp in Harmanly. This event led to the opening of massive investigation and the deployment of additional troops and equipment at the border.
28/06/2022-19/07/2022
- EuroMed Rights’ member Centre for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria reported about receiving an increasing number of reported pushbacks, 150 since the beginning of 2022. Some pushbacks even involved minors that were expelled while they claimed asylum in Sofia, in clear violation of the non-refoulment principle. People are even pushed back from refugee camps, and they are sent to Turkey.
07/06/2022 – 27/06/2022
- Human Rights Watch reported that Bulgarian authorities are brutally and violently pushing people back to Turkey, including Afghan asylum-seekers. As reported by Human Rights Watch, “at the end of 2021, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee reported there had been 2,513 pushbacks from Bulgaria, involving 44,988 people. In 2020, it reported that Bulgarian authorities pushed back 15,173 people”.
22/02/2022–08/03/2022
- On 3 March 2022, the Centre for Peace Studies and the Welcome Initiative published a new report on violent and illegal expulsions about the 6-year-long systemic violence and denial of access to asylum in Croatia. The report provides an overview of the last two years, marked by the escalation of violence and inhumane treatment in which police officers tortured, humiliated and illegally expelled thousands of refugees from the Republic of Croatia.
25/01/2022 – 08/02/2022
- The Border Violence Monitoring Network published its December 2021 report collecting 30 testimonies of pushbacks impacting 280 people-on-the-move across the Balkans. The report highlights increasing pushbacks from Bulgaria to Turkey.
14/12/2021-11/01/2022
- Along the Balkan route, migrants and asylum-seekers are increasingly trying to reach Western Europe via a new route that passes through Albania and Kosovo.
- The persecution of pro-refugee activists and organizations continues. A Croatian court convicted a volunteer from the NGO Are you Syrious for aiding illegal immigration.
25/10/2021 – 15/11/2021
- On the 2nd of November, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said the government deployed 350 troops and military equipment to its borders with Turkey and Greece. Bulgaria has seen an increase in migrants’ arrivals since July, however the numbers are not nearly close to the figures seen in 2015. The people crossing are mostly coming from Syria and Afghanistan.
06/09/2021 – 22/09/2021
- Bulgaria is intensifying detention and pushbacks of Afghan refugees at the border with Turkey.
19/08/2021 – 06/09/2021
- Bulgaria has been in political crisis since April 2021 as no successful elections are taking place and a temporary expert government is in operation and the Afghan crisis is regarded as a way of gaining political advantage. Bulgarian defence minister, Georgi Panayotov, said that a contingent of 400 soldiers equipped with specialised equipment for the protection of land and sea borders has been sent to the borders with Turkey and Greece. In spite of that, the numbers of asylum seekers are growing rapidly, detention centers are packed, national authorities are still searching for ways to manage and react. The Centre for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, EuroMed Rights’ member, together with 30 other civil society organisations, sent an open letter to Bulgarian institutions calling for the respect of the asylum law and to provide adequate reception conditions to refugees from Afghanistan.
28/09 – 09/10
- In Bulgaria, an increasing number of Turkish asylum seekers who try to submit an asylum application are deported to Turkey, in violation of EU and international conventions.
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