Sega newspaper carries a front page headline that reads: “Bulgaria starts to take in refugees from Turkey,” under a government decision, made on Wednesday that has not been made public. The caretaker cabinet cites the agreement signed between the EU and Turkey in March on the resettlement of migrants which is not recognized by the General Court of the EU or by some countries. The decision makes no mention of the number of people to be accepted by Bulgaria, but according to a Sega source it is a matter of around 50 people. Bulgaria is obliged to take in 50 people again from Greece or Italy by the end of the year under a different agreement. The refugees from Turkey will be selected by Bulgarian teams of experts from the State Agency for Refugees, the State Agency for National Security, the Interior Ministry as well as interpreters, dispatched to Turkey. The papers will be drawn up by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, but Bulgarian teams will be checking the authenticity of the passports, taking fingerprints and compiling dossiers of personal data and other information, on the basis of which an evaluation will be made of any possible grounds for considering a foreign national to be a threat to the public or national security of Bulgaria. Sega comments that, paradoxically, Bulgaria is beginning to implement the agreement with Turkey at a time of deep crisis in the relations between Erdogan and the European governments. Moreover, at the beginning of the month the General Court of the EU rejected as unofficial the accord between the EU and Turkey, stating that neither the European Council, not any other EU institution has made any decision to conclude an agreement with the Turkish government. The paper notes that on the same day the Bulgarian cabinet made the decision to take in refugees from Turkey, the leaders of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland declared they would not endorse the migrant resettlement plan drafted by the EU, because they consider it to be “blackmail, pure and simple”.

Compiled by Stoimen Pavlov

English version: Milena Daynova