EU external border: nameless death in Bulgaria

At the Turkish-Bulgarian border, migrants’ attempts to enter the EU often end in fatal exhaustion. Authorities quickly buried the bodies – without identification. This is further trauma for the relatives.

The portrait hangs between the windows in the otherwise plain living room. When Hussam Adin Bibars takes it off the wall to show it, it seems as if he is carrying a burden.

The handsome young man with blue eyes and a neatly trimmed black beard in the photo is his son. The last sign of life from him came in the fall. Majid had set out to move in with his family. His father fled Syria in 2015 and now lives in Denmark.

To put his plan into action, Majid had to cross the notorious Balkan route, which has become increasingly dangerous in recent years. The external borders are more strictly guarded, refugees and their smugglers choose longer and more dangerous routes to avoid encounters with the police.

Lost in the “triangle of death”

The path leads through dense, endless forests on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. They call this area the “triangle of death” because a particularly large number of dead bodies were found there. Refugees repeatedly get lost and die from dehydration and exhaustion.

It is often NGO employees like Diana Dimova who find the dead. Last year they received ten to twelve emergency calls, she says, this year she couldn’t count anymore, but there were definitely more than 70.

According to research by the ARD studios Vienna In cooperation with Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, RFE/RL, Solomon and inews, at least 93 people died on their way through Bulgaria in the last two years alone.

The research team has numerous videos and photos of refugees. They stand next to their dying companions, put them on jackets, try to cover them up and finally have to leave them on the forest floor, their stare captured on a shaky cell phone video.

Those who are too weak are left behind

Hussam Adin Bibars learns that Majid doesn’t have enough to drink either. He is becoming increasingly weaker, reports abdominal cramps and can no longer walk. His father is worried and tries to get in touch with the smuggler.

Desperate search in Bulgaria

When contact breaks down, Hussam sets out to search on his own. He travels to Bulgaria, visits hospitals and finally morgues.

In the forensic medicine office in Yambol, a city in the southeast of the country, he finds the first clue that could lead him to his son. He is told that a body matching his description was there.

At the police station they finally show him photos and say that the body was found in a field.

What remains: a grave number

Hussam wants to see and identify his son, but the body is already gone. The police only have a grave number for him. This news is hard for the father to bear:

The justification of the Public prosecutor

Before the body could even be identified, the prosecutor had already released it for burial. After just four days. Milen Bozidarov, one of the responsible prosecutors for the region, points out in an interview with the ARD for hygienic reasons.

The morgues are full and everyone is urged to hurry. If one can assume that the dead person was a migrant and the relatives are far away, then there are no sensible reasons to continue to keep the body.

But Majid’s father wanted to find his son; the long journey from Denmark didn’t stop him from searching. He was on site in Bulgaria 22 days after his death. But by then it was already too late.

The only thing he could still visit was a pile of dirt in a cemetery among other nameless graves.

“You don’t want attention”

Sharp criticism of this practice of quick burial comes from lawyer Dragomir Oshavkov from Burgas. Actually, it shouldn’t make any difference whether the dead person was a Bulgarian or a migrant.

However, the authorities have no interest in finding out the true cause of death or identity of migrants, he says. You just want to complete the process quickly and as conveniently as possible.

Behavior that is unworthy of the EU. That’s how Erik Marquardt, who sits for the Greens in the European Parliament and has been closely following migration policy in recent years, sees it.

Marquardt brings into play the introduction of an EU database and an obligation for member states to help find relatives.

A child without a father

For many people, the route via the Balkan route is now fatal – and ends in a nameless grave. Also for Majid.

A few days after his death, Majid’s daughter was born. Hussam, the grandfather, shows a video of the little one squinting from under a white and blue velvet hat. She will grow up with her mother.

She will never know exactly where and how her father died.