Post date: Nov 22, 2013 5:5:22 PM
United Nations and European Union officials visit a refugee camp in Sofia and meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister to discuss international assistance to help the country cope with the influx of Syrian refugees.
SOFIA, BULGARIA (NOVEMBER 22, 2013) (REUTERS) - Bulgaria will receive technical assistance as it struggles to accommodate asylum seekers, whose numbers have jumped significantly this year, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said on Friday (November 22).
"We have decided to develop a program of cooperation with the Bulgarian government in order to support Bulgaria in its efforts to provide an adequate protection and assistance to the Syrian refugees that are now coming in meaningful numbers," Guterres told reporters after visiting a refugee camp in Sofia.More than 9,800 people, mainly from Syria, sought asylum in Bulgaria, the poorest country in the European Union, in 2013 as the interior ministry said the number may reach 11,200 by the end of the year, doubling the Balkan state's capacity.
Guterres said that the U.N. will send a technical assistance team to Bulgaria in the coming week, which will help with the work of state agency for refugees and simplifying the procedure for granting refugee status.
Gaining an official refugee status is the main problem for the refugees, as Held fromSyria told Reuters. "We have been here for two months, and they didn't give any status yet." And Ahmed from Syria adds that they need the status in order to work.
Earlier this week, human rights group Amnesty International urged the Bulgarian authorities to take action to improve conditions at an emergency accommodation centre for asylum seekers.
The EU team researcher of Amnesty International, who visited the Harmanli campnear the Turkish border, criticized the conditions of the refugees. They said that it is "appalling that people seeking refuge in the EU are being trapped in limbo in such awful conditions with winter rapidly approaching".
Asylum seekers at several camps complained they were equipped with nothing more than a flimsy mattress and thin, damp blankets - hardly adequate cover to pass the cold nights in an unheated tent.
Bulgaria is taking steps to stop refugees from crossing its border with Turkey. It has started building a wall on the Bulgarian-Turkish border and deployed more than 1,100 police officers there to limit the influx.
The Socialist-led government has asked for financial support from Brussels to deal with its overcrowded refugee camps, which the UN has already described as 'unsafe' and 'dire'.