Increased migration and push-pull situations in Bulgaria

In 2022, according to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, at least 5,270 cases of illegal rollback of migrants trying to enter Bulgaria from neighboring Turkey were recorded at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. A total of 87,650 people were turned away at the border last year. This data is highly subjective and incomplete, indicating much higher real numbers. But the trend is clear: In 2021, the organization's recorded rollbacks stopped at 2,510, with about 45,000 people involved, nearly half of last year's number. In 2020, rejected migrants were just over 15,000.

A detailed overview of migration, rights violations and border management policies is presented in a long report on the InfoMigrants website, whose journalists visited Bulgaria last summer, talking to journalists, activists and social and legal experts.

New and stricter policies implemented by the right-wing Greek government seem to have led to the movement of a large portion of migrants from Turkey, especially from countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Morocco, to the Bulgarian border. This pressure has led to a sharp increase in violence and complaints of violence by Bulgarian police, who allegedly used firearms on multiple occasions. However, these accusations have always been denied by the authorities in Sofia.

In addition to the impunity of the security forces, the problem is indirectly aggravated by Bulgaria's desire to "prove" that it can manage its borders in order to finally gain access to the Schengen area, a goal the country has been pursuing unsuccessfully since joining the European Union in 2007.