Migrants living at the Harmanli camp in Bulgaria are on lockdown after reports of infectious disease including viral infections and smallpox.
Smallpox was eradicated in the 1970s.
Now it’s back.
#Refugees to be temporarily banned from leaving accommodation #center in #Harmanli:https://t.co/lP0xkULfqK pic.twitter.com/RdHkveh5mp
— Radio Bulgaria (@RB_English) November 21, 2016
Bulgarien verhängt Ausgangssperre für 3000 Flüchtlinge – es wurden Pocken (?!) und Virusinfektionen festgestellt https://t.co/ccGbckQjBH
— So nicht! (@XYEinzelfall) November 22, 2016
Breitbart.com reported:
3,000 migrants living in a camp in Bulgaria are on lockdown after reports that serious infectious diseases have been recorded among the group.
The camp, known as the Harmanli facility, is located near the Bulgarian border with Turkey and has been in operation for a number of years. Of the 3,000 current residents, most of whom are looking to move on to Western Europe, 128 of them have been diagnosed with serious illnesses from skin diseases to viral infections and even small pox, reports Die Welt.
News agencies in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia are calling the lock down a quarantine and raise concerns of a potential epidemic within the camp; those on the ground deny that the diseases are spreading rapidly throughout the population.
Many of the migrants who travelled through Turkey to Bulgaria come from Syria where a strain of a flesh-eating skin disease had become rampant; though there are no reports of it in the camp, authorities remain cautious.
The quarantine was initiated in reaction to a protest by nationalists who raised concerns that many of the migrants were spreading diseases and harassing locals in the area. Protests were held by nationalists around the country in recent weeks including in Sofia, Jambol, and the Black Sea resort town of Varna.
Bulgarien verhängt Ausgangssperre für 3000 Flüchtlinge – es wurden Pocken (?!) und Virusinfektionen festgestellt https://t.co/ccGbckQjBH
— So nicht! (@XYEinzelfall) November 22, 2016