Bulgaria Hundreds of migrants clashed intensely with police today (24.11.2016.) in
the detention centre of Harmanli, close to the Turkish-Bulgarian border.
The riots lasted for hours and the pigs needed rubber bullets, water
cannon and tear gas to break it.

After entering the camp the cops indiscriminately beat up migrants in their own rooms (photos – in the
comment under the post). The migrants were put under a quarantine some
days ago after local people, stirred up by nationalist and fascist
parties and organisations, protested against the centre, claiming it was
a source of diseases. Although an inspection proved this wrong, the camp
was literally besieged by police and people were forbidden from leaving
it (it is not a close centre, so people are normally allowed a limited
mobility). The treatment of migrants in Bulgaria is and has been
specifically brutal. Migrants have been killed on the border with
Turkey, where a massive fence was recently built, the cases of beatings,
degrading treatment and brutality are an everyday reality. All this
happens in an atmosphere where the media with no exceptions is a source
extremely racist and anti-migrant discourse.

The fascists and nationalists have been gathering strength and carry out daily attacks on
migrants, apart from their regular “refugees out” marches. The
opposition on any level is becoming more and more difficult as people
who express anti-fascist and anti-racist ideas are targeted by violent
gangs of fascists who enjoy almost complete impunity.