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Photo Feature: Bulgaria repels asylum seekers at Turkish border

A group of Afghan men walk back past the Turkish village of Uzgac after reportedly being pushed back from the border by Bulgarian police. Jodi Hilton/IRIN
A group of Afghan men walk back past the Turkish village of Uzgac after reportedly being pushed back from the border by Bulgarian police.
    EDIRNE

    Thousands of asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, are being denied entry to the European Union via Turkey’s border with Bulgaria. According to testimonies from asylum seekers, they are not only denied the opportunity to apply for asylum, but turned back by Bulgarian border police and, in many cases, beaten.

    The pattern of systematic pushbacks and beatings was highlighted by a Human Rights Watch report in 2014, but evidence that they have continued came to light this month with the deaths of two Yazidi Iraqis who attempted to cross the border. 

    Click here to see IRIN’s photo feature on how they died and evidence that a Bulgarian government policy introduced in 2013 may be behind the numerous documented cases of pushbacks and abuse of asylum seekers at the Turkish border.

    Jh/ks

     
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