Bulgaria Summarily Expells Asylum Seekers - Human Rights Watch Report

Bulgaria has embarked on a "Containment Plan" to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the country, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Tuesday.

According to the 76-page report, called "Containment Plan: Bulgaria's Pushbacks and Detention of Syrian and other Asylum Seekers and Migrants," the plan has been carried out in part by summarily pushing back Syrians, Afghans, and others as they irregularly cross the border from Turkey.

The document speaks of how in recent months Bulgarian border police have summarily returned people, who appear to be asylum seekers, to Turkey without proper procedures and with no opportunity to lodge asylum claims. Bulgaria should end summary expulsions at the Turkish border, stop the excessive use of force by border guards, and improve the treatment of detainees and conditions of detention in police stations and migrant detention centers, the report said.

Bulgaria has not been a host country for significant numbers of refugees on average registering about 1,000 asylum seekers per year in the past decade. The situation changed in 2013 when more than 11,000 people, over half of them fleeing Syria's deadly repression and war, lodged asylum applications. Despite ample early warning signs, Bulgaria was unprepared for the increase, Human Rights Watch claimed citing a February 5, 2014 report by the Interior Ministry saying that "Until mid-2013 Bulgaria was completely unprepared for the forecasted refugee flow."

Human Rights Watch slams Bulgaria's failure to provide new arrivals with basic humanitarian assistance in 2013, including adequate food and shelter at reception centers. The report also speaks of detention conditions and brutal treatment in detention centers, inadequacies in asylum...