site.btaLabour Minister: Problem with Migrants in Europe Lies Not in People But in Feeling That the Process Is Uncontrollable

Labour Minister: Problem with Migrants in Europe Lies Not in People But in Feeling That the Process Is Uncontrollable

Athens, November 6 (BTA) - The problem with migrants in Europe lies not in the number of people but in the creation of a feeling that the process is uncontrollable, which causes insecurity, Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivailo Kalfin said here Friday. He was speaking during a discussion on "Refugees and Migration: Social Policy. Dialogue between Neighbours" within the 11th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media, organized by BTA and the Association of Bulgarian Media Abroad in Athens.

According to Kalfin, all questions - how long this process will continue, how many people will come, how will they be dealt with - will remain pending until a clear policy is seen. As long as this process is uncontrollable, there will be a feeling of insecurity in European citizen, which can have a bad influence on EU integration, he said.

In his words, the problem with the refugee wave does not date back to the last several months - it has been underestimated for quite some time and no EU Member State can handle it on its own.

This wave of people entering Europe does not include only people running from a war. Here lies the first problem that should be solved in the EU: the list of countries from which refugees are to be accepted should be reconsidered, Kalfin argued. He outlined as another problem the fact that these people choose where to go - mostly Germany and Sweden. According to him, this right to choose should be regulated by a European policy.

In his words, the relocation by quotas is completely meaningless. "We cannot possibly talk about quotas when we cannot guarantee that these people will remain permanently in Bulgaria," he commented. The system for accepting refugees should also be changed because now it encourages a huge industry of traffickers, Kalfin went on to say. Bulgaria is one of the countries which does its job related to refugees, he added.

Daniela Gorceva, publisher of "Dialogue" magazine in the Netherlands, said that protection seekers in the EU totalled 562,000 people in 2014, while their number exceeded 400,000 in the first half of 2015 alone. The biggest percentage of these people come from Syria, followed by Afghanistan, Eritrea and Kosovo, and nationals of Serbia and Albania are in the top 8.

"The inciting and demonising of these people, who have or do not have the right to seek asylum, is a boomerang that will fall on our own heads. You cannot see them only as an enemy or terrorist and lose your humanity to such an extent that you stop seeing others' drama," she commented.

The 11th World Meeting of Bulgarian Media takes place with the support of CEZ Bulgaria, Coca-Cola Bulgaria, EKO Bulgaria, Mtel, Eurobank Ergasias, Postbank, Aurubis Bulgaria, Weiss Profil, and Sofia Med.