On Tuesday, two charter planes from Austria landed in Sofia, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Eight to 10 migrants reportedly arrived on the morning flight and 18 on the afternoon one, but the exact number has not been revealed.
According to a terse statement from the Bulgarian Interior Ministry, there is nothing unusual about this, the flight was “routine” and the refugees were arriving in accordance with the Dublin Convention. The plane was reportedly on its way from Sofia Airport to Georgia, where most of the migrants on board will return.
According to the opposition portal Pik.bg, the morning Vienna charter was delayed for an hour after the flight was removed from the airport scheduling system. After landing, ground handlers were forbidden to service the flight. Only border police were allowed in, with refugees hidden behind screens. They were then transferred from the airport runway by bus, according to Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet.
At 1:00 p.m., another flight arrived on the Brussels-Zagreb-Sofia flight route, and this charter flight was also removed from the airport scheduling system. The news portal expressed concern that in the coming days, weeks and months, two or three planes a day will land without being noticed until at least 6,000 migrants are deported. It is not known where these migrants will live, who will support them, or what exactly will happen to them.
“The neo-liberal government did not bring us into the Schengen Area, but is flooding our country with migrants,” former Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Krashimir Karakachanov said today. He said that in 2023 alone, 15,000 migrants will have been detained and registered, three-quarters of whom are no longer in the country.
“As the migrant influx has been going on for eight to nine years, and five to six thousand people are registered every year, we can expect 50,000 people to be returned. This would be disastrous for Bulgaria, with a declining and aging population. Thousands of migrants threaten national security and will in themselves lead to another demographic collapse,” Karakachanov said.
Meanwhile, citizens are gathering at Terminal 2 of the airport, outraged by the deportation back to the country and the conditions under which the liberal Denkov cabinet agreed to have Bulgaria fully admitted into the Schengen Area, that is, without any sea and air border controls.
