LONDON
\nAuthorities in Bulgaria have been accused of letting three Egyptian teenagers die by ignoring emergency calls and delaying attempts to rescue them, The Guardian reported.
\nThe incident took place in sub-zero temperatures near the Bulgarian-Turkish border late last month.
\nEvidence of the authorities\u2019 failure to save the boys was collected in a dossier produced by two humanitarian organizations, No Name Kitchen and Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche.
\nThe dossier, seen by The Guardian, contains photos, geolocations and personal testimonies, and reveals a wider pattern of brutality against migrants on the borders of Europe. The Bulgarian border with Turkiye is a common crossing point for asylum-seekers but contains treacherous terrain, as well as freezing winter weather.
\nThe two humanitarian organizations said that they were first alerted that an appeal for help had been made on Dec. 27 by the Egyptian trio. Calls had been made to an emergency charity hotline, referring to three teenagers \u201cat immediate risk of death.\u201d
\nThe GPS location of the three Egyptians, who were lost in the forests of southeastern Bulgaria, was sent to the hotline.
\nCharity workers then forwarded the information to the official 112 emergency number and attempted to locate the boys themselves. But Bulgarian border police allegedly hindered the charity rescue attempts even after being shown a video of one of the Egyptian teenagers in the snow.
\nThe boys were later identified as Ahmed Samra, 17, Ahmed El-Awdan, 16, and 15-year-old Seifalla El-Beltagy.
\nThey were later found dead, with the former having \u201cdog paw prints and boot prints around his body.\u201d
\nThis \u201cindicates that the border police had already found him, maybe still alive or dead, but had chosen to leave him there in the cold,\u201d the dossier said.
\nAfter charity staff later returned to the scene, they discovered that all traces of the prints had been removed.
\nOne of the bodies of the deceased was found to have been partly eaten by an animal.
\nThe dossier released by the two organizations also details harassment of charity rescue teams as well as vandalism of one of their cars.
\nStaff belonging to one rescue team had their passports and phones seized by Bulgarian police.
\nHuman rights organizations have warned that authorities in European border countries are deploying tactics to target humanitarian groups helping asylum-seekers.
\nNo Name Kitchen and Collettivo Rotte Balcaniche called for an \u201cindependent, formal investigation\u201d into \u201csystemic violence and negligence by Bulgarian authorities\u201d and \u201cdegrading treatment of people on the move.\u201d
\nBulgaria\u2019s Interior Ministry rejected the allegations and said that investigations into the case continued.
\n\u201cIn 2024, there were 515 search-and-rescue operations conducted by (the) general directorate border police of Bulgaria with the purpose (of providing) medical assistance to third-country nationals who managed to enter the country irregularly,\u201d the ministry said.
\n\u201cOur patrols reacted to all of those signals in a timely manner, considering how crucial this is when a person is exposed to extreme weather conditions.\u201d
\nOne activist described the reaction of Bulgarian border police to the three Egyptian teenagers as \u201cutterly shocking.\u201d
\nThey said: \u201cIt should not be the responsibility of worried activists to reach people in the forest \u2014 border police are trained and paid to do so.
\n\u201cIt is utterly shocking that three minors froze to death in the forest even though multiple alerts to 112 had been placed. This is a huge failure for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Authorities in Bulgaria have been accused of letting three Egyptian teenagers die by ignoring emergency calls and delaying attempts to rescue them, The Guardian reported. The incident took place in sub-zero temperatures near the Bulgarian-Turkish border late last month. Evidence of the authorities\u2019 failure to save the boys was collected in a dossier produced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-458031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n