Bulgaria Detains Hundreds of People After Refugee Camp Clashes
Bulgaria has detained 400 migrants and asylum seekers after clashes at a refugee camp.
Protests at the Harmanli camp in southern Bulgaria flared into violence on November 24 after authorities placed the camp under quarantine in response to demands from locals. Camp residents clashed with riot police, leaving two refugees and 24 police officers wounded.
Bulgarian prime minister Boiko Borisov said the suspects would be held in locked reception centers while their role in the clashes is investigated. Fifteen people have already been charged with damaging property.
Borisov also vowed to start the expedited deportation of Afghan migrants in early December, based on an E.U. deal with Afghanistan.
Authorities later said the health scare had been exaggerated and there was no medical reason to seal the Harmanli camp. However, poor health and sanitary conditions have been reported at the former military base, which is housing well over its 2,710-person capacity.
The camp lies near Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, which migrants and asylum-seekers continue to cross in the hope of traveling further into Europe despite tightened border controls. Around 13,000 migrants are in Bulgaria, according to official statistics.
Erdogan Threatens to Open E.U. Border Gates for Refugees
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to open the “border gates” to Europe for refugees after E.U. lawmakers voted to suspend Turkish membership negotiations.
The E.U. and Turkey agreed a deal in March to curb refugee boats to Greece in exchange for refugee aid and expedited visa and membership talks. But the talks have been derailed by Turkey’s crackdown on dissent following a July coup attempt.
The E.U. parliament voted November 24 to freeze membership talks, but E.U. officials said negotiations were likely to continue anyway.
Even so, Erdogan strongly reiterated his recent threats to cancel the March deal. “We are the ones who feed 3–3.5 million refugees in this country. You have betrayed your promises,” he said. “If you go any further, those border gates will be opened.”
Greece Urges Faster E.U. Relocation After Deadly Fire at Lesbos Camp
The Greek government urged the E.U. to expedite the relocation of migrants and asylum seekers from the country’s overcrowded camps after a deadly fire on a Greek island.
A cooking gas canister exploded in the Moria camp on Lesbos on November 24, igniting a fire that killed a 66-year-old woman and a six-year-old child and wounded another woman and child.
More than 6,000 asylum seekers are stuck on Lesbos, facing long waits for relocation or processing of their asylum status. The Moria and the Kara Tepe camps on the island only have capacity for half that number, Reuters reports.
The E.U. pledged last year to relocate 160,000 asylum seekers from Greece and Italy to other European nations, but only about 4 percent have been moved to date.
“The fire in Moria is more than an accident. It is a direct consequence of the deplorable living conditions that Greek and E.U. authorities force refugees to live in inside Moria camp and other places across Greece,” Doctors Without Borders head of mission in Greece Loic Jaeger told the Associated Press. “How many more people need to die in a tent, trying to keep warm, before E.U. and Greek authorities take action?”
Recommended Reads:
- The New York Times: Hungry Venezuelans Flee in Boats to Escape Economic Collapse
- Agence France-Presse: Rohingya Refugees Tell of Rape, Torture and Arson by Myanmar Troops
- The Guardian: The Small African Region With More Refugees Than All of Europe
- The Washington Post: Syrian Baby Named ‘Angela Merkel’ Refused Asylum in Germany
- Deutsche-Welle: Finding Counselors for Traumatized Refugees
- Reuters: As Asylum-Seekers Clog Italy’s courts, Europe is No Help