Human Rights Report Deceitful – Bulgaria's Refugee Agency Head

Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees Chief, Nikolay Chirpanliev. Photo by BGNES.

Human Rights Watch is a fraudulent organization which cynically manipulates public opinion, president of Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees Nikolai Chirpanliev claimed.

During a 'Media and the Refugees' discussion, Chirpanliev commented on the critical Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the current situation in Bulgaria in regards to asylum seekers and migrants treatment which was released Tuesday.

According to HRW's report, Bulgaria has embarked on a "Containment Plan" to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the country by summarily pushing back Syrians, Afghans, and others as they irregularly cross the border from Turkey.

In an interview for Bulgaria's Dnevnik Daily, one of the authors of the report and refugee rights program director at HRW Bill Frelick said that representatives of the State Agency for Refugees (SAR) and the Interior Ministry have refused to meet with representatives of the NGO.

Chirpanliev said that he had not read the HRW's report and he did not intend to, Dnevnik informs. SAR's president claimed that he was shocked by the images he earlier saw, which did not show the truth.

"Do you know whom they (the HRW representatives) saw? They did not see border police officers, they saw guards in front of the Presidency building with their rifles, bayonets and boots. They are morons," Chirpanliev added as cited by Dnevnik.

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