site.bta Left Wing Voices Concern about Government's Approach to Refugee Situation

Left Wing Voices Concern about Government's Approach to Refugee Situation


Sofia, January 16 (BTA) - The main left-wing group in Parliament
 on Friday expressed their deep concern about the government's
reaction to the possibility of a new refugee wave reaching
Bulgaria. The BSP - Left Bulgaria Coalition issued a declaration
 on the matter, which was read out in Parliament by the group's
Deputy Floor Leader Atanas Merdjanov.

Summarizing the situation, Merdjanov said: "The Interior
Ministry shifts the responsibility onto the Armed Forces; the
Defence Ministry complains to the President; the President
invents a potential diplomatic scandal; the Vice President says
there will be no such scandal; the Prime Minister does not seem
very interested as he makes only brief comments; and the
respective Deputy Prime Minister, Kuneva, is obviously
completely unprepared for the future events."

Earlier in January, commenting on frictions between the Defence
Ministry and the Interior Ministry over their role in protecting
 the border in a looming serious refugee situation, President
Rosen Plevneliev warned that the participation of the Armed
Forces in protecting the border might cause a diplomatic scandal
 and said he would not allow the Armed Forces to stand at the
border when there is no army across, all the more so that Turkey
 is a NATO member. The migration pressure on Bulgaria is
expected to worsen considerably in 2015 with the onset of
spring. In 2014, a total of 38,502 persons attempted to enter
Bulgaria illegally by getting around official border crossings.
That was 2.3 times more than in 2013, and 2013 was already a
year of increased migration pressure for Bulgaria.

In their declaration, the BSP - Left Bulgaria Coalition insisted
 that Prime Minister Boyko Borissov should coordinate the
efforts of the competent government agencies, rather than
leaving the matter to be handled by a deputy prime minister
without portfolio. According to the Socialist-dominated
coalition, Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva can make herself
 much more useful if she focuses on getting more substantial
financial and other support from the EU.

"We also want to ask President Plevneliev, if he wants to be
useful to his country, to stop throwing out hints to the media
in an offhand way and to contribute to the necessary public and
political consensus, including by convening the Consultative
Council on National Security, if necessary," Merdjanov said.

He pointed to the danger of terrorists being among the refugees
who enter Bulgaria.

Merdjanov said his parliamentary group favours a prompt
completion of the construction of the fence along the
Bulgarian-Turkish border and the allocation of additional
funding to limit the refugee flow and to promote the social
integration of those refugees who are already in Bulgaria.
Merdjanov suggested that the money could be pooled into a
special fund in order to ensure transparency and control.