Influx of Bulgarian asylum seekers to Norway

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OSLO, 12 July 2001 - A group of 300 Bulgarian asylum seekers have arrived in Oslo since last Friday to apply for political asylum, bringing the total number of Bulgarians seeking political asylum in Norway since early June to 650, according to Norwegian authorities. The asylum seekers who arrived last week are Bulgarian Turks and Roma from the Ruse region. According to the Bulgarian News Agency BTA, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has urged the Interior Ministry to take up the case and halt the traffic of emigrants. "The Foreign Ministry has long been warning about the travel agents organizing the bussing to Oslo of residents of Ruse, mostly Roma, who leave in search of employment and political asylum in Norway," the Spokesman's Office said and added that the ministry has not received any warnings from Norway that it would reintroduce visas for Bulgarians.

The asylum seekers undertake the three-day-long journey lured by promises for well paid jobs and a better future. "In Norway, everybody gets a job and the state gives you money as soon as you arrive," the Norwegian Aftenposten daily quoted one Bulgarian travel agent as having said to a would-be client. Ruse police are planning to investigate travel agents who tricked the hundreds of Bulgarians into traveling to Norway by persuading them they would find work and be paid while their applications were being processed. Most of these people have had to sell their valuables and houses to come up with the cash necessary for the tickets, the price of which has almost doubled in one week. Somebody is earning a fortune from duping groups of Bulgarian Roma and Turks into believing a better life awaits them in Norway, the newspaper adds. Meanwhile, Aftenposten journalists who have arrived in Ruse are met with disbelief when they say the claims for employment and residence permits are untrue. Norwegian authorities have reported that officials are leaving for Bulgaria to try to stop more Bulgarians from leaving for Norway.

The first 45 asylum applications were withdrawn when the applicants realized they had been misled about the conditions in Norway. At the same time, Bulgarian authorities have announced that every Bulgarian citizen who is expelled from Norway and returned to Bulgaria will be banned from leaving the country for one year. Bulgaria has announced that it is ready to pay for their trip back. top

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