Riot police had to storm the camp yesterday using water cannon and rubber bullets to restore order at the camp on the border with
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, with 24 officers being injured in the operation.
Shocking photographs of the burning rubble of the camp showed gangs of young men milling around in hoodies. Most are from Afghanistan, according to officials.
Witnesses said the scene "looked like a war zone" after rampaging refugees smashed windows, overturned trash containers and set fires.
Those who are not sent back to the Middle East will be dispersed to migrant camps across the country in a bid to prevent them from organising another violent uprising.
Mr Borisov raged: "I am very worried. You see there is no window left unbroken. The people who committed these acts of vandalism will be brought to justice.
"Based on an agreement between the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and Afghanistan we have asked for a plane to start extraditing people there in early December. As for the rest, all who have acted brutally and violated public order will be moved to closed camps."
More than 400 asylum seekers had been confined in a part of the camp after rumours rippled through a nearby town that many of them had a serious and highly contagious skin condition. It is home to around 3,000
Officials put the site on lockdown whilst detailed medical examinations were carried out, although doctors later said the level of sickness in the camp had been exaggerated.
Howerver, residents in nearby Harmanli have upped their calls for the camp to be permanently closed, claiming that
Local Rusi Stoev said: "This camp should be closed. You should see what it's like here at weekends. They go around in big groups and take fruit and vegetables at the market without paying."
Almost all of the
Representatives for the asylum seekers have been demanding that they be allowed free passage into neighbouring Serbia, which is the next step on the Balkans route to the promised lands. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things...
the country's interior ministry has refused that request and has instead beefed up security by deploying more border guards.
Bulgaria has been one of the main transit points for the more than a million
The country has built a fence along its land border with Turkey and has beefed up border controls to deter asylum seekers from attempting the crossing.
Officials say some 17,000 people were detained in the first 10 months of the year, down by more than a third from the same period in 2015.
Despite the decreasing numbers, Bulgarian nationalists have staged protests in recent months calling for the immediate closure of all refugee centres and for