racism

Bulgarian state supports racist groups which are hunting for migrants

Since the private TV station bTV reported about people who are patroling with All-terrain vehicles through the border region of Bulgaria and calling their leader a national hero, more groups popped up in public which claim for arresting the migrants who crossed to Turkish-Bulgarian border. Although, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee called for prosecution of the case. The prime minister, Boyko Borissov, thanked in a statement these patrols: I personally talked with them [the voluntary patrols] and thank them. I send the director of the…

Read More

Asylum Seekers and Dinko Valev

There is a so called “Refugee Hunter” called Dinko Valev who has become infamous within Bulgaria and the EU for assaulting and illegally detaining asylum seekers who he finds having entered Bulgaria from the Turkish border. There are also other far right groups who are copying the actions of the “Refugee Hunter” such as the organisation ‘Association for the Protection of Bulgarians’. Recently groups of far right and neo-nazi organizations have raised Valev to the status of a hero for…

Read More

Prisoners’ Complains followed by Repressions in Sofia Central Prison

Early April the director of Sofia Central Prison, Peter Krestev was appointed acting director of the national prison body. Soon after on the 11th April Yanko Vatashki was released from the isolation unit and returned to a general wing. The former acting vice director is now acting director of Sofia Central Prison. Returning Yanko to the general wings was a good beginning for the new acting director, but obviously not nearly enough. On the 11/3/2013 a guard assaulted a Chechen…

Read More