Right of asylum

The European Union should reboot its approach to the Syrian refugee crisis to include sharing the burden of resettling refugees, a Council of Europe official says, accusing the top European countries of neglecting one of the worst humanitarian crises of recent history.

Accommodation centers hosting asylum seekers and refugees across Bulgaria are to be imposed a curfew as of Monday, February 2.

The measure will prevent about 3700 of refugees from leaving their compounds after 20:00 EET, or 22:00 EEST in the summer.

Merely 61% of the capacity of Bulgarian refugee accommodation centers is currently used, stated Tatyana Kulinova, senior counsel to the State agency for the Refugees (DAB) on Friday.

As of 23 January 2015, 3 672 out of the available 6 000 spots in the centers have been occupied. Syrians, who number 2 751 people, are the largest group provided with accommodation.

Bulgaria's National Audit Office has made clear that the implementation of the national program for the integration of refugees in the period 2011-2013 failed to produce any effect.

Bulgarian municipalities with refugee accommodation centers and those involved in integration programmes will receive significant subsidies.

This was announced by the chief secretary of the State Agency for Refugees (DAB) Zlatko Aleksandrov on Thursday, daily Standart reports.

Aleksandrov explained that the funding will be mainly allocated to infrastructure projects.

Chairman of the State Agency for the Refugees Nikola Kazakov announced on Monday that two new centres for the accommodation of refugees will be built in southern Bulgaria.

Kazakov explained in an interview for the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) that an information campaign will be carried out in order to calm the citizens.

Bulgaria announced plans Wednesday to extent a 30-kilometer fence along its border with Turkey, a major entry point for migrants trying to get into the European Union.
      

The number of Syrian refugees has increased by 704 000 in the first half of 2014 and they are currently the largest refugee group under the mandate of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), according to a newly published report.

Syrians have overtaken Afghans as the largest refugee population aside from Palestinians, fleeing to more than 100 countries to escape war in their homeland, the United Nations said on Jan. 7.
   

About 51.2 million people have been displaced since World War II, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres said on Jan. 6, noting the current figures for displaced people are the highest they have ever been.