A Burgas court has confirmed the home detention measure, imposed some 10 days ago to young Bulgarian Petar Nizamov – Perata. The latter got notorious with a FB video, showing the “civil arrest” of three Afghani people, carried out by him alongside some 10 other associates. Perata claims his intentions were patriotic, but the court says the man’s goal was anything but state border’s protection. PM Boyko Borissov’s initial comment praised the actions of the vigilantes, calling upon them at the same time not to violate the law. The Bulgarian Helsinki Committee demanded from the interior ministry not to encourage nationalistic organizations that form vigilante squads along the border. The civil arrest measure does exist in Bulgarian law, but legal experts explain that it is not applicable, as far as refugees are concerned, no matter the illegal border crossing.

A civil arrest of that kind scandalized the Bulgarian society mid-February as well. The doers were once again criminals. The public reactions now vary from calls for the legitimacy of this “national guard” to “sociopaths, commandeering functions of the official authorities who need strong control”.

The February case made it clear that the civil arrest was an illegal action. Now, two months later Interior Minister Roumyana Bachvarova said that all civil arrests were nothing else but provocation, aiming to show that the state fails to cope with the migrant pressure. She said that it was not true, as 30,000 refugees were registered in 2015 while other 100,000 were prevented from crossing the border over the same period. Even the nationalist parties at the parliament reacted differently to what was happening – a part of the Patriotic Front supports the vigilante squads, but the National Front for the Salvation of Bulgaria says they are “gangs of mugs”. The socialists say the brigades are a sign of poor statehood and public safety. The rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria wants military training and control of those, willing to guard the border, in order for the latter to be forced to comply with the law.

No matter the fuzz, these are only two scandalous events and not a large-scale problem along the border. The state guarded well at the peak of the migrant wave and we don’t have any reasons to believe that it will fail now, at a minimum of migrant pressure. In fact we don’t need any vigilante volunteers, but a more transparent and widespread national migration policy.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev