Migrant flow diverts from Western Balkans to Bulgaria

Migrant flow diverts from Western Balkans to Bulgaria
By bne IntelliNews June 23, 2017

There is still a flow of migrants through the Balkans, and their route has changed, with the southern entry point shifting from the Greek islands to Bulgaria’s land border with Turkey, German political foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) said in a report released on June 21.

In March 2016 two events ended the European refugee crisis – the closure of the so-called Balkan route and an agreement between the EU and Turkey, under which Ankara agreed to help stem the flow of refugees to Europe in return for financial assistance and visa free travel for its citizen. However, while the Eastern Mediterranean migration route was stopped, the Balkan route was not closed completely.

As a result of the two measures, the number of refugees and migrants moving along the route has decreased sharply, but still tens of thousands manage to transit. Other consequences were the route redirection, and the increasing tendence of desperate refugees and migrants to turn to smugglers.

Following the EU-Turkey deal and the Balkan route closure, the number of stranded migrants soared in Bulgaria and Serbia, but dropped in Macedonia and Slovenia. In Bulgaria, the number went up from 865 on March 10, 2016 to 5,534 at end-2016. In Serbia, the number increased from 1,706 to 6,232 over the same period.

FES reported that the EU countries situated at the southern entry (Bulgaria) and the northern exit (Hungary, Croatia) of the Balkan route have responded to the incomplete closure of the route with intensified efforts of systematic pushbacks of refugees and migrants. While Bulgaria had limited success, Hungary and Croatia have been more successful. Pushbacks also take place at the Bulgaria-Serbia border towards Bulgaria and at the Serbia-Macedonia border in both directions.

In mid-December, Bulgaria’s interior ministry said that they had apprehended more than 18,000 foreign nationals last year, who had entered Bulgarian territory without authorisation. There was a sharp increase following the failed coup attempt in Turkey, with 150-200 arrests at the border per day. The often violent pushbacks at the border with Turkey involve summary deportations back across the frontier.

Still, the success in preventing the redirection of the Balkan route to Bulgaria is limited. FES quoted a November interview with an official of an international human rights organisation, according to whom one of the reasons is the so-called “police channel” involving “corruption among a substantial minority of border police who cooperate with human smugglers at the Turkish-Bulgarian border”.

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