Send them back!

Bulgarian PM orders mass deportations,
after rioting migrants trash camp

EXPRESS
November 26, 2016
Nick Gutteridge

Bulgaria'S furious prime minister ordered officials to begin the mass deportation of hundreds of migrants, who went on a rampage and trashed their camp.

Fuming Boiko Borisov vowed, all migrants involved in the violent disturbance will be "brought to justice" with many being deported back to their home countries.

Riot police had to storm the camp yesterday, using water cannon and rubber bullets to restore order at the camp on the border with Turkey, with 24 officers being injured in the operation.

Shocking photographs of the burning rubble of the camp showed gangs of young men milling around in hoodies. Most are from Afghanistan, according to officials.

Witnesses said, the scene "looked like a war zone", after rampaging refugees smashed windows, overturned rubbish containers and set fires.

Migrants have destroyed a camp on the border between Turkey and Bulgaria. (REUTERS•EPA•GETTY)

Bulgaria's fuming PM has demanded, that the vandals be deported. (EPA)

Those, who are not sent back to the Middle East, will be dispersed to migrant camps across the country in a bid to prevent them from organising another violent uprising.

Mr. Borisov raged: "I am very worried. You see, there is no window left unbroken. The people, who committed these acts of vandalism, will be brought to justice."

"Based on an agreement between the European Union and Afghanistan, we have asked for a plane to start extraditing people there in early December. As for the rest, all, who have acted brutally and violated public order, will be moved to closed camps."

More, than 400 asylum seekers had been confined in a part of the camp, after rumours rippled through a nearby town, that many of them had a serious and highly contagious skin condition. It is home to around 3,000 migrants overall, making it the largest in Bulgaria.

Migrants had been locked in the camp over health fears. (REUTERS)

Police had to use tear gas and rubber bullets to restore order. (EPA)

Officials put the site on lockdown, whilst detailed medical examinations were carried out, although doctors later said, the level of sickness in the camp had been exaggerated.

However, residents in nearby Harmanli have upped their calls for the camp to be permanently closed, claiming, that migrants regularly venture into the town and steal from them.

Local Rusi Stoev said: "This camp should be closed. You should see, what it's like here at weekends. They go around in big groups and take fruit and vegetables at the market without paying."

Almost all of the migrants in the camp want to travel onwards to rich western European countries, like Germany and Scandinavia, where they hope to start new lives.

Representatives for the asylum seekers have been demanding, that they be allowed free passage into neighbouring Serbia, which is the next step on the Balkans route to the promised lands. However, the country's interior ministry has refused that request and has instead beefed up security by deploying more border guards.

Bulgaria has been one of the main transit points for the more, than a million migrants, who have entered Europe from the Middle East and North Africa in the last year.

The country has built a fence along its land border with Turkey and has beefed up border controls to deter asylum seekers from attempting the crossing.

Officials say, some 17,000 people were detained in the first 10 months of the year, down by more, than a third from the same period in 2015.

Despite the decreasing numbers, Bulgarian nationalists have staged protests in recent months, calling for the immediate closure of all refugee centres and for migrants to be returned to Turkey or to their country of origin.