Mass rejections, degrading treatment and inhumane living conditions: solidarity with protesters at Harmanli camp (Bulgaria)
People living in Bulgaria’s biggest asylum centre in Harmanli, a town close to the border with Turkey, began a protest this Monday (January 20) against the mass rejection of Syrian asylum claims, and as part of a wider call to the Bulgarian and European authorities to take urgent action against the hostile and degrading policies and conditions which govern their lives.
A video of the inside of the Harmanli camp sent to us on 24 January 2025
The situation for Syrians seeking asylum in Europe since December 2024
Recent months have been particularly challenging for Syrians seeking asylum in Europe. Following the fall of the Assad regime in December, several European countries - including the UK, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark - have suspended new asylum applications for Syrians and put ongoing cases on hold. Austria has even announced plans for mass repatriation. It’s estimated that the current policy affects 101.000 Syrian pending asylum applications in the EU (EUAA report, September 2024), as well as 6500 asylum claims in the UK.
Despite the overall position of the EU as a bloc maintaining that the country is not a safe place to return to, it seems that the protection once afforded to Syrians has disappeared with the fall of Assad. European countries are now exploiting the change of the Syrian political context as a pretext to curb migration within their borders, instead of offering support and guidance for a transitional justice process focused on achieving democratization, fairness and actual safety in the country.
However, as the No Name Kitchen (NNK) collective pointed out in their December report, increasing hostility from European states towards Syrian asylum seekers is not only a reaction to the fall of Assad. Since 2018, Assad himself encouraged voluntary return, claiming that the situation had become safer and that Syrian citizens had a moral duty to take part in the reconstruction of the country. In addition, since October 2024, EU leaders have been meeting in Brussels with the aim of normalizing relations with Assad’s regime and increasing forced returns to Syria, affirming that violence in Syria had become sporadic and the security situation in the country had significantly improved.
The situation in Bulgaria for Syrians
During the week immediately after the fall of the 54-year bloody Assad regime, the NNK report attests that Bulgarian authorities interrogated 200 Syrian people residing in asylum camps, including women and children, and coerced them, under threats of violence, into signing voluntary return documents that they did not understand, as they were not provided with translations nor explanations. Authorities sought to obtain confessions by asylum seekers that Syria had become a safe country, and people were asked whether they were happy with the fall of the regime. Their affirmative answers were then used as evidence against them to be forcibly returned to Syria, undermining their right to seek asylum and protection from persecution.
Even though, according to some brief conversations we’ve had this week with IOM staff, there is no clear plan for Syrians in Bulgaria yet, as protestors evidenced, in the last few weeks there has been a de facto systematic rejection of asylum claims by Syrians in Bulgaria after months of waiting, with such a decision being based on the change of leadership rather than on the individual circumstances, as should be the case. In fact, according to the recast Asylum Procedures Directive (Dir. 2013/32/EU), recital 42, “where an applicant shows that there are valid reasons to consider the country not to be safe in his or her particular circumstances, the designation of the country as safe can no longer be considered relevant for him or her”. Such a procedure is not being currently implemented in Bulgaria, and all asylum claims are being rejected. The protests which began earlier this week take place within this framework.
Photo provided to Collective Aid by residents of Harmanli camp, January 23 2025
Screenshot of a message received by Collective Aid from residents of Harmanli camp, January 22 2025
The demands of the protesters of Harmanli Camp
The Rotte Balcaniche Collective has published a full list of the protesters’ demands which we have reproduced at the end of this blog.
People living in Harmanli camp are calling for support and solidarity as they demand justice in the face of the systematic refusal of their rights and an end to their confinement in hostile and degrading living conditions. The voices, who are self-organized, claim that Syria is not safe yet and they are living in fear of being forced to return after everything they have already gone through.
Firstly, they want to be granted residency and for Bulgarian courts to acknowledge that Syria is not safe due to its unstable situation and uncertain future caused by the lack of clarity about who will run the country. In addition, they advocate for the issuing of procedures for obtaining ID cards, permits to leave the camp during the day and work permits for students and asylum seekers.
Secondly, they claim that people who obtain a third refusal should not be imprisoned, but should rather be allowed time to leave the country; those rejected should also be ensured fair treatment in court and be allowed to speak and defend themselves.
In addition, they are calling for the improvement of living conditions within the camp, including medical services and food, which are considered as inadequate. Most of the people we have spoken to have told us that they try to cook or eat outside the camp because the food standards are very poor. Moreover, there are not enough shower and toilet facilities, and those which do exist are dirty. Despite freezing temperatures, the camp is being heated for only one hour a day.
Even in these unacceptable circumstances, people tell us that the accommodation provided in Harmanli is still better compared to camps in Sofia which people describe as “horrible”. The people of the Harmanli camp are fighting for justice and better treatment for people on the move across the whole country. Whilst we were at the camp earlier this week, some people told us that similar demands are also being made in camps in Greece.
People at the camp told us that they are being refused access to journalists to discuss their protests and demands. Despite this, they are standing firm in their demands and will continue with the protests until the Bulgarian authorities allow their voices to be heard. We have also heard reports that some people within the camp have begun a hunger strike.
Another person we spoke to in Harmanli shared their experiences of war in Syria as a child and the experiences they have had over the intervening 14 years as they travelled to Europe; escaping bombings, paying smugglers to reach safety, and, finally, ending up in a camp system in Bulgaria under inhumane conditions which carry echoes and reminders of Syria's notorious Sednaya prison.
All this person asks for is for their asylum claim to be fairly processed and to be given the chance to work and live legally in Bulgaria, as they feel Syria will take a long time to recover.
None of us can compensate for the irreparable loss of time and years of suffering that this person, and many others like him, have experienced. What we can - and must - do - is to stand unequivocally behind the residents of Harmanli camp in their demands for justice and fair treatment - and with people on the move detained and degraded in inhumane camps across Europe, call on Bulgarian and European authorities to fulfil the requirements of the public positions with which they have been entrusted, and share and amplify the demands of the people of Harmanli camp and their calls for solidarity in our networks.
The requests of the people of Harmanli camp
To the attention of media and Asylum Administration in Bulgaria
We are the asylum seekers staying in the camp of Harmanli in Bulgaria. We are demonstrating today because we have some requests:
1-The residency must be granted for people for asylum seekers;
2-Judges should consider that Syria is not a safe country due to the unstable situation, Syria’s future is still unknown due to the lack of clarity about who will run the country;
3-There should not be detention for those who obtain a third refusal, we ask to give them a period of time to leave the country;
4-Procedures for obtaining papers, exit the camp during the day, have permission for work, should be facilitated, especially for students;
5-Living conditions in the camp should be improved, including medical services and food;
6-We ask to be allowed to speak or defend ourselves in court and to receive a more respectful treatment
These are not the reasons why we came to Bulgaria, we know this is a democratic country that should respect laws and human rights and provide a decent life for refugees, and this is what we are looking for.
The No Name Kitchen and Rotte Balcaniche collectives have played a pivotal role in documenting and reporting on the current situation in Bulgaria. Their detailed and persistent reportage vital work has exposed the repeated failures of Bulgarian and EU authorities which have led to horrific outcomes such as those seen at the end of December near Burgas.
You can visit the website of the No Name Kitchen’s Bloody Borders project here, where both of the reports cited in this blog, and linked below, are published:
https://bloodyborders.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/NNK_Frozen-Lives_25-01-20_2.pdf
A collection of Colletiva Rotte Balcaniche’s reporting can be found here
Words by Elisa Andreolli