[EN] EXCLUSIVE: BULGARIAN 'MIGRANT HUNTER' LEADS VIGILANTE PATROLS IN ARMOURED VEHIVLES TO ROUND UP AND TERRORISE REFUGEES ALONG THE TURKISH BORDER... AND BOASTS 'IT'S A SPORT'

• Dinko Valev's units use military vehicles and dogs to hunt asylum seekers
• He hands illegal migrants over to the police 'because they are all jihadists'
• Wants Bulgarian state to fund operation and pay for every captured refugee
• Human rights group accuse Valev of terrorising migrants with death threats

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

A self-styled migrant hunter has organised gangs of vigilantes to patrol and hunt down illegal asylum seekers in Bulgaria.

Dinko Valev, 29, has managed to acquire two armoured vehicles to travel through rough territory around the city of Yambol near the border with Turkey.

He says the reaction has been so positive among the population that he is now trying to recruit more people to expand his vigilante operation.

And he even wants the Bulgarian government to fund the operation and pay for every captured refugee.

He regards every illegal migrant as a jihadist and dismissed claims he was terrorising his captives.  

He said: 'I would describe it as simply a sporting activity. You can't describe sportsmen as violent.'

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Bounty hunter: Bulgarian gangster Dinko Valev stis on an armoured vehicle which he uses to track down and round up illegal migrants near his home in the city of Yambol in south-eastern Bulgaria

[FR] UE/TURQUIE: NE PAS NEGLIGER LES DROITS DES REFUGIES DANS LES NEGOCIATIONS

Les accords visant à limiter les migrations sont profondément insuffisants

Human Rights Watch

Des familles de réfugiés et de migrants au large de la côte ouest de la Turquie, non loin du village de Cesme, avancent vers des canots pneumatiques le 4 novembre 2015, afin de rejoindre l'île grecque de Chios en mer Egée. 

© 2015 Reuters

(Bruxelles) – L’accord conclu entre l’Union européenne et la Turquie est une réponse politique défaillante et potentiellement dangereuse aux afflux de réfugiés en mer Egée, a déclaré Human Rights Watch aujourd’hui. Les responsables turcs et de l’UE se réuniront à Bruxelles le 7 mars 2016 afin de discuter de la mise en œuvre d’un plan d’action commun qui, l’UE l’espère, mettra un frein aux flux de migrants et de réfugiés de la Turquie vers la Grèce.

Human Rights Watch a publié hier un document de questions/réponses, donnant notamment des explications sur les raisons pour lesquelles la Turquie ne peut pas être considéré comme un pays d’asile sûr.

[EN] EU/TURKEY: DON'T NEGOTIATE AWAY REFUGEE RIGHTS

Deal to Limit Migration Deeply Flawed

Human Rights Watch

Refugees carrying their children walk towards a dinghy to sail off for the Greek island of Chios from Cesme, Turkey November 4, 2015.  

© 2015 Reuters

(Brussels) – The European Union deal with Turkey is a flawed and potentially dangerous policy response to refugee flows across the Aegean Sea. EU and Turkish leaders will meet in Brussels on March 7, 2016, to discuss implementation of a joint action plan that the EU hopes will limit migration and refugee flows from Turkey to Greece.

Human Rights Watch issued a question-and-answer document today, including details about why Turkey should not be considered a safe country of asylum.

“EU leaders are in a panic to stop refugee flows before spring, and they seem willing to throw human rights overboard in the process,” said Judith Sunderland, acting deputy director for the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “It is naked self-interest and wishful thinking to say Turkey is a safe country of asylum – it is not, and this deal could cause much more harm than good.”

The EU and Turkey signed the controversial deal in November 2015. The EU pledged €3 billion and political concessions to Turkey, in exchange for stepped up efforts to curb migration and refugee flows to Europe. The EU is eager for Turkey to crack down on boat departures from its coastline; an average of 2,500 people have made the crossing every day since the deal was struck. The €3 billion should be used to improve access to health care, education, and other basic services for more than 2 million Syrian refugees already in Turkey.

Turkey does not meet the two most basic conditions for a safe country of asylum, Human Rights Watch said. It does not provide effective protection for refugees and has repeatedly pushed asylum seekers back to Syria. Turkey has ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, but is the only country in the world to apply a geographical limitation so that only Europeans can get refugee status there

[EN] RING-FENCING GREECE WILL OPEN THE GATE TO EUROPE'S NATIONALIST NIGHTMARE

apostolisfotiadis 

A coalition of the inhumane is rising in Europe. A group of political leaders have been meeting this week in Vienna to coordinate how to seal the western Balkan refugee passage. The Western Balkan countries involved don’t want to risk hosting thousands of stranded people in their poor societies. They expect that by intentionally causing a humanitarian disaster in Greece they are going to stop the misery of the world getting in their backyard.

Meanwhile the four Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) who have not been not invited to join these discussions, are also at the forefront of this ideological campaign to seal the Balkan route. Their motivation is based on an Islamophobic narrative, as advocated by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, a self-declared enemy of liberal democracy and consolidator of a Christian front against the Islamisation of Europe.