Bulgaria Cracks Down on Migrants After Fatal Crash

A refugee family in Edirne, Turkey in March 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE/TOLGA BOZOGLU

Thirty-six of the people who were arrested are Syrian and one is from Morocco. They have been sent to refugee centres.

There have been a series of arrests across Bulgaria since the crash which saw the bus with Turkish plates hit a police car on August 25 near the city of Burgas in the south-east near the border with Turkey. The collision left two policemen dead.

The driver of the bus claimed to be Syrian and insisted he is 15 years old, but was carrying no documents or driver's licence. The authorities are currently seeking details of his identity.

Between Saturday and Monday, a total of 141 Afghans with no documents were found by police hiding in villages near Burgas. Over 100 were discovered hiding in a bus with North Macedonia plates and a Macedonian driver.

A bus carrying 30 Afghan citizens also crashed in the western town of Godech on August 21, with the driver losing his life.

These incidents have revived public debate about border control corruption and trafficking routes, with politicians using heated rhetoric. Interim Interior Minister Ivan Dermendzhiev spoke about a "migrant war on Bulgaria" in his first comments after the August 25 crash.

Krassimir Kanev, chair of the human rights organisation Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, expressed concern about how the detained migrants will be treated.

"Similar government campaigns have happened before when the public opinion has been attracted by a certain topic and by nature, these situations usually reflect negatively on the human rights of the affected," Kanev told BIRN.

"There is a high risk of human rights violations as this concerns people in a vulnerable position - they don't...