As its shelters overflow with Syrians, Bulgaria asks for help from an EU that is in no mood to give

Refugees at Europe’s Gate

by Boyko Vassilev

I saw them a year ago on the Syrian-Turkish border, 

a desperate crowd of hunted people.

The refugees were coming from the embattled town of Azaz, escorted by the Free Syrian Army. Families carried mainly two things: potatoes and ventilators. The latter was not a curiosity: I had been in the Kilis refugee camp in Turkey and seen the thermometer reach 57 degrees Celsius (135 degrees Fahrenheit) in the July heat.

I can’t forget the teenager hoisting a sack of potatoes bigger than himself, stopping every minute as he doggedly proceeded toward the barbed-wired Turkish border. I saw many refugees during my journalistic assignments in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, but the Sisyphean effort of this boy was particularly heartbreaking.

I wonder what he was expecting. If he had seen what I did, he would be rather discouraged: in July 2012 Turkish refugee camps were already overflowing; water, sanitation, and living space were scarce. The poor fellow maybe thought the worst was behind him: the shooting helicopters over Azaz, the explosions, the terror, the war. But a life full of uncertainties awaited.

A year later the Syrian war is still vicious – and the refugees are on the border of my country, Bulgaria. Four thousand eight hundred are already in, and the 5,000 mark will be reached as you read this. According to experts, that is all Bulgaria can handle.

Like elsewhere, Bulgarian society is divided on the issue.


..............

Read more: www.tol.org/