Sofia - Bulgarian police officers summarily return migrants and asylum seekers to Turkey, often after stealing their belongings and using violence against them, rights group Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday.
Migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq reported forceful returns, robbery, violence and police dog attacks, according to a survey by the Human Rights Watch carried between October and December last year among 45 refugees in six countries.
The group said migrants reported of 59 incidents of forceful returns from Bulgaria to Turkey between March and November last year. 26 refugees also said they had been beaten by police or bitten by police dogs.
“All but one said they were stripped of their possessions, in some cases at gunpoint by people they described as Bulgarian law enforcement officials, then pushed back across the border to Turkey,” the group said in a statement.
In November, the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, funded by Oxfam, also reported testimonies for beatings, threats and other police abuse at migrants coming through Bulgaria.
Human Rights Watch urged Bulgaria's authorities to take urgent steps to stop the unlawful treatment of people who seek protection and hold those responsible to account.
Bulgaria's interior ministry spokeswoman said forceful returns or improper treatment of asylum seekers were not part of the Balkan country's policy towards migrants and that every reported case was being investigated.
“We do no have such policy and we do not tolerate it. Every signal we receive for an abuse we do investigate,” the spokeswoman said.
Bulgaria is one of the EU countries struggling to handle the biggest influx of migrants and refugees since the World War Two, with more than 1 million entering the 28-member bloc in 2015 alone.
Over 30 000 illegal migrants entered Bulgaria last year, nearly three times more than in 2014.
But very few of them stay in the EU's poorest member state and prefer to continue their journey to wealthier western countries.
Reuters