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Stranded pickers to be bussed home: official

Bulgaria has agreed to bring home hundreds of its nationals stranded in Sweden by false promises of jobs as seasonal berry-pickers, the city of Stockholm said Wednesday.

Stranded pickers to be bussed home: official
Stranded pickers arriving in Stockholm on Wednesday.

“The Bulgarian government has taken the decision to finance their return by bus,” Stockholm city official Brita Mohlin told AFP, adding that the city would work together with the Bulgarian embassy.

The migrants have been living in makeshift camps in the forests of central Sweden, amid simmering tensions with local residents, after being lured there by suspected human-traffickers with promises of seasonal work.

Since last week, hundreds of them have also camped outside the Bulgarian embassy in the capital Stockholm, seeking help to get home.

Bulgarian ambassador Svetlan Stoev told the TT news agency:

“We are working to get them all home to Bulgaria. But we need help finding buses.”

Mohlin said the about 200 people who were camping outside the embassy would leave by Thursday morning, as soon as enough buses had been located.

On Monday, a 43-year-old man, whose name was not given, was detained in Sweden suspected of human trafficking, after a number of Bulgarians reported to local police he had tricked them into making the trip.

Local police in the central Uppsala region said the man had recruited the Bulgarians and promised them housing, food and decent salaries.

But after he drove them up in a bus, the migrants told police, they were handed tents and basically left to fend for themselves in what has been shaping up to be a disastrous berry season due to poor weather.

Locals in nearby villages and towns have for weeks voiced concern about the squalid conditions of the large camps, without easy access to food or sanitary facilities, and the strain it was putting on local communities.

Many have made their way down toward Stockholm and the embassy, and to accomodate their needs the city made a school building in central Stockholm available on Wednesday night. Resources however remained stretched.

“I am trying to call round to the different local authorities in the municipalities that have many stranded pickers and ask them to keep them up there. Otherwise we risk a situation we can’t manage down here,” said Mohlin to TT.

Mohlin was very pleased with the news from Bulgaria, but added that getting the stranded pickers home will be no easy feat.

“It is hard to find buses and drivers, the embassy is working hard to solve the situation. And then the pickers need to be identified, to ascertain that they really are Bulgarian,” Mohlin told TT.

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HERO

Could street hawker hero be rewarded with Spanish residency and a right to work?

Residents in Denia have launched a petition calling for Gorgui Lamine Sow, the undocumented migrant who leapt into a burning building to save a disabled man, to be rewarded for his heroic deed.

Could street hawker hero be rewarded with Spanish residency and a right to work?
Gorgui Lamine Sow was presented with a Superman T-shirt by the man he saved. Photo: Gorgiou Lamine Sow

A petition registered on change.org is lobbying for Lamine, who arrived from Senegal by boat two years ago, to be given residency and work papers in recognition of his saving the life of Alex Caudeli on Friday.

Lamine scaled a wall and entered the burning building, lifted Caudeli, who is unable to walk following a long illness, over his shoulder and brought him to safety after a heater caused a fire in his first floor room.

But as quickly as he had appeared, he vanished; before anyone had a chance to thank him or find out his name.  

The Local tracked him down on Monday thanks to Roberta Etter, who lives next door to Caudeli and witnessed the extraordinary rescue.


Gorgui Lamine Sow carried Alex Caudeli over his shoulder to safety. Photo: Roberta Etter

The 20-year-old shared details of his life describing how he lived in one drafty room with his girlfriend, Gana, and seven-month-old daughter Ndye, and that as a family they travelled 40km each day by bus from Gandia to eek out a living selling bracelets in Denia’s port.

On Tuesday he was more positive saying reaction to his story had been huge and he hoped it might result in regularization and a more steady life for him and his family.

“I hope to get papers and a home so we can live here peacefully in Spain,” he told The Local by telephone.

“I’d really like to be a truck driver,” he revealed.

Just as the petition was launched, the mayor of Denia said he has asked the central government to fast track residency for Lamine and local media reported that the request is currently being analysed.

Denia’s town hall also plans a ceremony to recognise Lamine with a bravery award.

On Tuesday Lamine met the man whose life he saved. Caudeli, who was discharged from hospital on Monday after being treated for burns, had bandages on his face and hands

“It was great to meet him and see him doing ok,” Lamine told The Local after the meeting. “He gave me a superman T-shirt and one for the baby.”

It's not the first time that a heroic act changed the life of an illegal immigrant.  Last year France awarded citizenship to Mamoudou Gassama, an immigrant from Mali who scaled an apartment building in Paris to save a child clinging to the outside of a balcony. He is now a firefighter.

To sign the petition CLICK HERE

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