Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

MIGRANT

Bulgarian berry pickers camp out in Stockholm

Some 200 Bulgarian berry pickers have gathered outside the Bulgarian embassy in central Stockholm after promises of work bore no fruit.

Published: 21 July 2012 17:09 CEST
Bulgarian berry pickers camp out in Stockholm

Around 40 of the beleaguered Bulgarians are reported to have camped in a bus parked outside the embassy as staff worked to secure tickets home.

According to Swedish police the berry pickers had been in Jämtland in northern Sweden.

As The Local reported last week a number of Bulgarians had been imported into Sweden on the promise of work during the berry picking season but were then left to fend for themselves in the forests.

Bulgarian embassy staff confirmed that the berry pickers were brought to Sweden by an as yet unidentified person and that they had been forced to survive in trying conditions.

Some of the stranded berry pickers have been able to return home after having been provided tickets by their home towns, but others have been left in the hands of the Stockholm embassy or with the hope of help from family or friends.

The embassy is currently supplying the stranded group with bread and water twice a day and the district council has provided them with a bus.

The Bulgarian embassy said that it has five staff working to assist in the repatriation of the berry pickers.

“We are working hard so that they are able to get home. They are poor people but we hope that friends and relatives in Bulgaria can transfer money to them so that they can get home somehow,” said Tatiana Petrova at the embassy.

Petrova however ruled out direct financial assistance from the embassy.

“The embassy has no money we can spend on them. The normal procedure is for money to be sent from Bulgaria,” she said.

“But we are doing everything we can to fund it somehow. If we give money to these people, we need to have a guarantee that it would be paid back to the embassy,” she added.

A further dozen Bulgarian berry pickers have turned to the social service in Örebro in central Sweden for for and money in order to return home.

The council however referred the matter to the Bulgarian embassy.

According to police it is unclear if any of the 200 people gathered by the embassy are connected to a 43-year-old Bulgarian resident who was arrested on Thursday after allegedly luring other Bulgarians into coming to Sweden with the promise of a salary, a home, and a job.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

Published: 11 December 2019 13:17 CET
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

READ ALSO:  

SHOW COMMENTS