Number of Asylum Seekers from Afghanistan Increased 4 Times – Bulgaria’s Refugee Agency

The number of asylum seekers from Afghanistan has increased more than four times in the last year, Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees told Dnevnik.bg.

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 1397 Afghans have been accommodated in the Agency's centers, while their number in 2013 was 310.

Of them so far only 7 people have received refugee status, and 15 were given humanitarian status. Last year, according to the statistics, just one refugee and one humanitarian status were given, Dnevnk notes. From the Refugee Agency explained that the procedure for more than 500 cases had to be stopped because the people went missing - they have either left or fled the country.

Vasil Danov from the agency told Dnevnik that the reason for the small number of given statutes is that according to the interpreters and interviewers most people from Afghanistan do not provide sufficient evidence of coming from a conflict zone. Many of them attempt to illegally get to Western Europe, therefore they refuse to apply for asylum or later leave the Refugee agency accommodation centers, he explained.