Bulgaria at the heart of Europe’s harsh new immigration approach

Seven miles from Sofia, a former military barracks called Busmantsi holds hundreds of migrants in cramped, squalid cells. Thirty people share rooms that are locked from 10 p.m. until 7 a.m.; there are no toilets inside, no running water and a camera watches from a corner.

Men describe waking with bedbug bites, vomiting into plastic bags when ill, and eating colorless meals three times a day without access to education, language classes or work. Occasionally officials from the Bulgarian police and Frontex bring detainees to a small room and offer them a stark choice: sign papers to return home or be held for 18 months.

Many at first refuse, but some sign under pressure and disappear; others wait out the full term and are then typically released and allowed to remain in Bulgaria. One Syrian detainee, Hesham, recounted being arrested in Germany, detained at Munich airport and deported to Sofia; he later messaged that he wanted to file a lawsuit against the prison.

Bulgaria, Sofia

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