BULGARIA

Scandal Breaks upon Deported Roma Arrival in Bulgaria's Varna

FROM  NOVINITE.COM
SOFIA NEWS AGENCY

Society
August 26, 2010, Thursday

13 Roma deported from France landed in Sofia Wednesday and were transported to the Varna airport Thursday. Photo by BGNES A taxi cab driver stirred a huge scandal Thursday at the airport in Bulgaria’s Black Sea capital Varna by accusing a Roma family of stealing his wallet.

The driver, identified as Donkov, insisted a woman and her three children took from him EUR 300 and asked for the border police to frisk the four, who had just been deported from France back to Bulgaria.

The incident occurred after another cab driver told the family to get off his car because they had too much luggage. The Roma woman then proceeded to the next cab, but Donkov appeared right in the middle with threats and screams. He was removed from the scene by colleagues, and later came back and apologized to the family. He told the TV reporters, gathered for the landing of the deported Roma, he had realized he left his wallet at a gas station.

The Roma woman, on her part, complained that because of people like the driver, Roma in Bulgaria have no rights, adding she did not come back from France to steal and Bulgarians have no money to be stolen anyway.

The mother said she returned from France on her own will, because someone in the family has gotten sick and she needed to take care of them. She lived in France for 3 years and worked at a food stand while two of her children attended French school with the help of the local church. The woman stated the French were very nice to them and no one had forced them to come back to Bulgaria, adding she would try to go back abroad, but not as an illegal emigrant.

At the end of July, during an emergency meeting of the cabinet, France decided to deport Roma, following clashes between the latter and the police in central France.

Most of the Roma in France came from Bulgaria and Romania after the two countries joined the EU in 2007 and are seen by the majority of the French as a threat to security, according to France Press.