Photo Feature: Bulgaria Repels Asylum Seekers

Human Wrongs Watch

EDIRNE, 25 March 2015 (IRIN)* – Thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied entry to the European Union via Turkey’s border with Bulgaria. According to testimonies from asylum seekers, they are not only denied the opportunity to apply for asylum, but turned back by Bulgarian border police and, in many cases, beaten.

**Photo: Jodi Hilton/IRIN | A group of Afghan men walk past the Turkish village of Uzgac after reportedly being pushed back from the border by Bulgarian police.

The pattern of systematic pushbacks and beatings was highlighted by a Human Rights Watch report in 2014, but evidence that they have continued came to light this month with the deaths of two Yazidi Iraqis who attempted to cross the border.

Click here to see IRIN’s photo feature on how they died and evidence that a Bulgarian government policy introduced in 2013 may be behind the numerous documented cases of pushbacks and abuse of asylum seekers at the Turkish border.

*Source: IRIN, a humanitarian news and analysis, a service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Go to Original.

**Photo: Jodi Hilton/IRIN | A group of Afghan men walk past the Turkish village of Uzgac after reportedly being pushed back from the border by Bulgarian police.

Read also:

Outsourcing Asylum!

‘Save the Lives of Migrants; Stop Smugglers from Exploiting their Desperation’

Mediterranean, the Deadliest Sea for Refugees, Migrants

‘Urgent European Action’ Needed to Protect Migrants at Sea’

On International Day, UN Urges Greater Attention to ‘Precarious’ Situation of World’s 232 MillionMigrants

Australia’s New Migration Bill Shifts Task to Security

Netherlands Politicians ‘trying to score political points at expense of homeless migrants’ – UN Rights Experts

Immigrants in Europe Struggle to Find Decent Work Amid Looming Economic Crises

Migrants’ Remittances Expected to Reach US$ 436 Billion in 2014 – How to Help Them Make the Most of Their Money

UN Concerned over Spain’s Bid to Legalize Push-backs of Migrants

Rescuing Migrants in the Sea — Tunisian Fishermen Unlikely Heroes