by IRIS

Sofia, 2014

On 25 April, 2014, the inhabitants of the central Bulgarian village of Rozovo – ethnic Bulgarians – went
out in protest in front of one of the village houses. The reason – three refugee families from Syria (17
people in total, children included), who had acquired their official legal residents’ status some days
before, had moved in the house after signing a lease contract with the owner of the house, as normal
practice in Bulgaria and everywhere in the world is. The Rozovo villagers, however, did not savour the
idea that they will have Syrian people as neighbours and organised themselves into a noisy protest to
chase the Syrians out of Rozovo. Some 150 ethnic Bulgarian Rozovo residents chanted “Bulgaria for the
Bulgarians!” and similar slogans. They succeeded – the Syrian families had to move out. A businessman
from the nearby village of Kran, however, showed sympathy to the expelled people and leased them his
own house.

See full PDF version: Bulgaria Chronicle 5 – Arrivals of Syrian asylum seekers cause tensions in Bulgaria