Bulgaria Cannot Force Migrants to Stay, Social Min Warns

Politics » DOMESTIC | September 10, 2015, Thursday // 11:17
Bulgaria: Bulgaria Cannot Force Migrants to Stay, Social Min Warns Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria is not capable of keeping migrants in if they wish to set off for another EU member state, Labor and Social Policy Minister Ivaylo Kalfin has said.

Commenting on the migrant crisis which has caught Europe over the past weeks in an interview with public broadcaster BNR, Kalfin has warned of Bulgaria's inability to offer the same conditions to asylum seekers who prefer countries like Germany or Sweden.

"We cannot force refugees into staying in Bulgaria, so there must be a revision of these Dublin Regulations under which they are obliged to stay in the country through which they entered [the EU] or where they were relocated. We can neither arrest them nor tie    them up. Secondly, part of them prefer going to Sweden or Germany, or to one of the richer countries, rather than stay in Bulgaria. So we have to be aware that in Bulgaria it will be hard for us to offer them the same level of payment, social system that other countries have."

Kalfin's comments are also a reference to the Wednesday proposal put forward by the EU Commission which, if approved, will result in some 160 000 migrants being relocated from Greece, Italy, and Hungary to other EU member states.

Under this plan, Bulgaria is to accept 1600 more migrants, a number he described concisely: "Not many."

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Tags: Ivaylo Kalfin, Kalfin, migrants, refugees, Germany, Sweden, EU Commission, quotas

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