site.btaNGO Calls for Better Living Conditions in Busmantsi Migrant Camp, Release of Saudi Activist
On Sunday, an organization named Solidarity with Migrants in Bulgaria (SMB) called for improving the living conditions in the Special Home for Temporary Accommodation of Foreigners in the Sofia suburb of Busmantsi. The SMB held a protest outside the Home demanding that members of the organization should not be barred from accessing Home residents and should be given more opportunities to bring food and medicines to the migrants. They insisted that the camp residents, who currently number 26, should not be treated violently and insulted with racist remarks, and should be allowed to go out or be “released”.
“The authorities take away the foreigners’ smartphones and they cannot contact their families and lawyers,” the SMB’s Georgi Spasov told journalists. He said visits to the camp are only allowed within a period of two hours on two working days of the week, Spasov said.
According to him, one of the residents in particular, Saudi activist Abdulrahman al-Khalidi, should be “released” because he is in his third year of living in the camp, which is “like a prison” to him.
The case of al-Khalidi is an instance of transnational repression, said another SMB member, Galina Lalcheva. “In Bulgaria, migrant detention has become a form of criminal detention and people are presumed to be guilty until proven otherwise,” she said.
On January 9, the Sofia City Administrative Court ruled against a refusal by the State Agency for Refugees (SAR) to grant al-Khalidi refugee status and humanitarian status. After an appeal, the reversal of the Agency’s refusal was upheld by the Supreme Administrative Court in April. According to the court, the case file must be returned to the SAR for a review in accordance with the court’s reasoning and for consideration of the evidence provided by the applicant.
On February 12, after considering al-Khalidi’s case, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee urged in an open letter: “Stop the forced return of Abdulrahman al-Khalidi to Saudi Arabia.” On March 13, Human Rights Watch appealed to the Bulgarian authorities: “Don’t deport Saudi activist.”
/VE/
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