Bulgaria's Interior Minister Concerned with Rozovo Events

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev. Photo: BGNES.

Bulgaria's Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev said he was concerned with the Rozovo events, but was not yet sure if they are a crime. 

“I am concerned with what happened in Rozovo,” Yovchev said in his first comment on the events of this past weekend when the villagers in Rozovo threatened and expelled three families of Syrian refugees with small children, who had rented a house in the village. “Those events do not reflect the public sentiments.”

Yovchev claimed he was not yet sure if the incident can be defined as a hate crime. 

“I think the reaction of the villagers violated the civil and human rights of the Syrians,” he said. “Once they receive a humanitarian status from the State Refugee Agency (SRA), they have all the rights of permanent residents of Bulgaria.”

According to Yovchev, this meant they have the right to live wherever they like, to work and to receive social assistance and the reaction of the local authorities was inadequate.

Meanwhile, Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Svetlozar Lazarov said the authorities are initiating a check-up on the case. In his words, it will regard the SRA procedure, which granted the 17 refugees humanitarian status and will not include the instances of hate speech and threats on part of the villagers. 

Lazarov said that in his personal opinion “this incident was inhumane”.

Continue reading on: