MIGRANTS' MISERIES IN BULGARIA
Last September, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council approved a list of 100 countries whose citizens will need a visa to enter EU territory. Bulgaria is one of the few European countries on the black list. Tanya Marincheshka from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee explains the reasons for this "punishment".
The notion of economic migration has so far been applied to Bulgarians themselves migrating to developed countries all over the world. This situation, however, is undergoing a radical change.
Interpol data show that the number of illegal migrants trafficking by land from Asia and Africa has increased ten times in recent years. Bulgaria is on the crossway of the mapped out trafficking routes. Trafficking means money and big temptation. In this context, then, it is not surprising that one of the reasons for the punishment of Bulgaria by leaving it in the EU list of "risky" countries was the traffic in illegal migrants through its territory. The abrupt increase in the smuggling of people, drugs, arms and objects of cultural value via Bulgaria coincided with the down-fall of the totalitarian regime. Local and foreign criminal groupings have profited from the situation in the country for several reasons. The secret services that used to be interested in the problem of international trafficking have been all but dismantled; the national police and the judiciary have been shaken up by personnel and structural changes; lack of money has tied the hands of state institutions and reciprocal action was and is still lacking.
In a situation where about 2,000 trespassers have been detained by the border police, and an even greater number have successfully passed through and are now illegally residing in Bulgaria, xenophobic and racist attitudes are increasing. There are victims. Experts report that with the present rate of expulsion of illegal aliens we will need 50 years more. Many of the illegally residing foreigners have been trapped in Bulgaria, since they are not wanted either in their own countries or in Western Europe; consequently, they will have to remain here for a considerable time. Shall we call them immigrants and shall we treat them like such?
These are the problems that should be urgently discussed and resolved in a way compliant both with humanitarian principles and with national security requirements. Otherwise, bilateral violations of human rights will continue to be a burning issue: on the one hand, the violation of the human rights of Bulgarian citizens, who have to pay a high price for the inability of the State to stop illegal trafficking and migration; on the other hand, the rights of asylum-seekers (who are much fewer than the economic migrants) are also violated. In other words, we must urgently reconsider whether the elaboration and enforcement of an immigrants' law is an issue for Bulgaria.
Tanya Marincheshka
Published with the kind permission of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC). The article was first published in the BHC's English newsletter, OBECTIV 11/95. Available from: BHC, 21 Gladstone St, 1st floor, 1000 Sofia, Bulgaria, Tel/Fax: +359/2 873659; E-mail: bhc@sf.cit.bg