The increased migratory pressure along the Bulgaria-Turkey border has been causing more and more problems for the locals, and for institutions in Bulgaria. The number of migrants admitted to the district hospital in Yambol has also gone up, which only makes the financial position of the hospital worse, BNR’s correspondent in Yambol Daniela Kostova reports.  

The warm winter and the fact the fence along the border is so easy to breach have made it easier for illegal migrants to reach the villages in the border regions. At least that is what people living in these villages are saying.

We come up against migrants every day, says Stoyanka Chakurova, mayor deputy of Voden village near Bolyarovo which is less than 10 kms. from the border.

“The last time the plumber brought a man, probably part of a group, who had fallen asleep and had been left behind. He looked 16-20, they all do. He got warm, got some sleep, then the police patrol came and took him away. They’re busy, I can see they’re exhausted, the groups of border police who get dispatched here from other parts of the country.”

Against this background, the information that the police station with 5 officers is to be shut down has additionally fueled the concerns the people living in the five border villages in Elhovo municipality have, and they threatened civil disobedience and a roadblock of the international road leading to Lesovo border checkpoint. There are some 1,500 people living in the region covered by the police station, and it is through this region that the road leading to the border checkpoint passes. “We want the police so stay so we can be sure we shall be protected against theft, migrants, all sorts of things,” says the mayor of Granitovo village Hristo Gechev. “The villages close to the border must not be left without a police presence,” says on his part the mayor of Lesovo Dimitar Bivshev and adds:

“Lesovo is a border village and the migratory pressure is very strong, the second factor is the elderly population and the third – that conventional crime will go up.”

Migrants rarely cause any trouble or incidents in the villages, though there have been some. Deputy mayor of Straldzha Grozdan Ivanov says there have been several shocking incidents:

“One was a break-in at a kindergarten to steal food. The other was when a house was set on fire – the investigation is still ongoing but what probably happened was that migrants stayed the night there and lit a fire to get warm that went out of control.”

During the winter months the migrants people have seen in the villages are in very bad shape.

“The ones we have seen in the village are in poor shape and they turn themselves in because they can’t continue on their way. They are in such a pitiful condition, muddy, hungry,” the locals say.

More and more refugees have been rushed to the district hospital in Yambol, the hospital’s director Dr. Panayot Dimanov says. The St. Panteleymon hospital is the only emergency hospital in Yambol region, and 22 refugees have been taken to the ER there since the beginning of the year. Eight of them have been admitted for treatment. When they get detained, migrants are taken to the hospital for a check-up, its director says:

“The doctors here establish what state of health they are in and then inform the Ministry of the Interior of their future actions,” Dr. Dimanov explains.

The medical treatment of one migrant costs no less than 1,000 Leva (approximately EUR 510) and the costs are initially covered by the district hospital, after which the Ministry of Interior hospital transfers the money that has been spent, but only on the treatment administered, not the medical examinations, and with a delay. A ministerial decree is expected to be issued allocating more money for the medical care for migrants, as the European funding earmarked for the purpose has run out.

Reporting by Daniela Kostova, BNR correspondent in Yambol