INVESTIGATION|’Le Monde’, Lighthouse Reports and several European news outlets reveal video evidence of Bulgarian border guards illegally detaining refugees in a cage, under the watchful eye of Europe’s border force agency Frontex.
In a small town in southern Bulgaria, in between a nursery school, the local football stadium and rows of quiet houses, a makeshift cage, housed in a shed, is used by Bulgarian border guards to detain would-be migrants. This is shown in footage revealed by Le Monde, in partnership with Lighthouse Reports, Monitor, Der Spiegel, Domani, RFE/RL Bulgaria and Sky News.
The makeshift cage is made up of iron bars and littered with garbage and is visible from the street. On five occasions, between October 15 and November 25, Le Monde’s partners were able to film the area, where, every time, a dozen or so men had been detained.
In one of the videos, some of the men are questioned by the guards about their country of origin: “Afghans? Morocco?” Le Monde interviewed four men – Syrians and Afghans – who told us that they had been locked up following their attempt to enter Bulgaria.
This cage is not an official holding zone for the detention of people entering illegally. The country is thus free from any control, including regular inspections by NGOs such as the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee or the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria. However, the cage is located in a police complex loaned by Sredets (south-east Bulgaria) city hall to the border police, which reports to the Interior Ministry.
A car from the European agency Frontex, in charge of controlling the Schengen area’s external borders, is visible three times in footage filmed by Le Monde and its partners a few meters from the cage.
An internal Frontex document, which Le Monde was able to see, emphasizes that their presence is not a one-off: ten of its agents have been permanently deployed in Sredets since the end of March 2022. It is a collaboration between Frontex and the Bulgarian border guards, confirmed in this local press article. It says that a joint patrol of Frontex agents and Bulgarian border guards in Sredets arrested 33 would-be migrants on September 13. They were then detained in the police complex in Sredets.
Contacted by Le Monde, Frontex said their agents are limited to border surveillance operations, jointly with the Bulgarian border guards. They did not specify the details of its activities in Sredets.
Four Syrian and Afghan nationals interviewed separately by Lighthouse Reports and its partners between October and November in Turkey claimed to have been detained for long hours, sometimes alongside women and teenagers. They also said they were abused.
*Illegal migrants.
Criminals normally need to be held in a prison or jail of some sort. In this case, these are people who passed the border illegaly, therefore it seems perfectly logical, also due to their number, makeshift jails need to be made.
This anti-bulgarian campaign by the 7 outlets is getting pathetic.
wait, I tought we are letting them go unnoticed, now you are telling me they are held captive im confused 😀
What do you mean Bulgarian border guards ILLEGALLY detaining refugees??????
I don’t know how do the French or the fucking Austrian Nazi’s or the Dutch stoner/hooker fuckers do it. But in Bulgaria, just like any other nation crossing a border at location other than a passport control point is ILLEGAL. And usually if you do something illegal in a country (except for Netherlands and Austria) you get DETAINED!!!!
If you ask me the headline for this article should be “Bulgaria protecting EU borders yet again”
Ukrainians took all the hotels, sorry
Този акаунт е поствал това в r/eu и r/europe баси whistleblower-a. Но все пак разбирам проблема- не ги държим в саниран арест и поднасяме чаша топъл чай, а в някакви подобни места, които няма кой да почисти.
>This cage is not an official holding zone for the detention of people entering illegally. The country is thus free from any control, including regular inspections by NGOs such as the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee or the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria. However, the cage is located in a police complex loaned by Sredets (south-east Bulgaria) city hall to the border police, which reports to the Interior Ministry.
Monkey
Soooo illegally crossing the border has consequences… unbelievable. 😲
8 comments
INVESTIGATION|’Le Monde’, Lighthouse Reports and several European news outlets reveal video evidence of Bulgarian border guards illegally detaining refugees in a cage, under the watchful eye of Europe’s border force agency Frontex.
In a small town in southern Bulgaria, in between a nursery school, the local football stadium and rows of quiet houses, a makeshift cage, housed in a shed, is used by Bulgarian border guards to detain would-be migrants. This is shown in footage revealed by Le Monde, in partnership with Lighthouse Reports, Monitor, Der Spiegel, Domani, RFE/RL Bulgaria and Sky News.
The makeshift cage is made up of iron bars and littered with garbage and is visible from the street. On five occasions, between October 15 and November 25, Le Monde’s partners were able to film the area, where, every time, a dozen or so men had been detained.
In one of the videos, some of the men are questioned by the guards about their country of origin: “Afghans? Morocco?” Le Monde interviewed four men – Syrians and Afghans – who told us that they had been locked up following their attempt to enter Bulgaria.
This cage is not an official holding zone for the detention of people entering illegally. The country is thus free from any control, including regular inspections by NGOs such as the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee or the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria. However, the cage is located in a police complex loaned by Sredets (south-east Bulgaria) city hall to the border police, which reports to the Interior Ministry.
A car from the European agency Frontex, in charge of controlling the Schengen area’s external borders, is visible three times in footage filmed by Le Monde and its partners a few meters from the cage.
An internal Frontex document, which Le Monde was able to see, emphasizes that their presence is not a one-off: ten of its agents have been permanently deployed in Sredets since the end of March 2022. It is a collaboration between Frontex and the Bulgarian border guards, confirmed in this local press article. It says that a joint patrol of Frontex agents and Bulgarian border guards in Sredets arrested 33 would-be migrants on September 13. They were then detained in the police complex in Sredets.
Contacted by Le Monde, Frontex said their agents are limited to border surveillance operations, jointly with the Bulgarian border guards. They did not specify the details of its activities in Sredets.
Four Syrian and Afghan nationals interviewed separately by Lighthouse Reports and its partners between October and November in Turkey claimed to have been detained for long hours, sometimes alongside women and teenagers. They also said they were abused.
*Illegal migrants.
Criminals normally need to be held in a prison or jail of some sort. In this case, these are people who passed the border illegaly, therefore it seems perfectly logical, also due to their number, makeshift jails need to be made.
This anti-bulgarian campaign by the 7 outlets is getting pathetic.
wait, I tought we are letting them go unnoticed, now you are telling me they are held captive im confused 😀
What do you mean Bulgarian border guards ILLEGALLY detaining refugees??????
I don’t know how do the French or the fucking Austrian Nazi’s or the Dutch stoner/hooker fuckers do it. But in Bulgaria, just like any other nation crossing a border at location other than a passport control point is ILLEGAL. And usually if you do something illegal in a country (except for Netherlands and Austria) you get DETAINED!!!!
If you ask me the headline for this article should be “Bulgaria protecting EU borders yet again”
Ukrainians took all the hotels, sorry
Този акаунт е поствал това в r/eu и r/europe баси whistleblower-a. Но все пак разбирам проблема- не ги държим в саниран арест и поднасяме чаша топъл чай, а в някакви подобни места, които няма кой да почисти.
>This cage is not an official holding zone for the detention of people entering illegally. The country is thus free from any control, including regular inspections by NGOs such as the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee or the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria. However, the cage is located in a police complex loaned by Sredets (south-east Bulgaria) city hall to the border police, which reports to the Interior Ministry.
Monkey
Soooo illegally crossing the border has consequences… unbelievable. 😲