Bulgaria refuses to join UN migration pact

SOFIA: Bulgaria will not join a United Nations accord on regulating the treatment of migrants worldwide and would not attend the conference marking its formal adoption in Morocco next week, its centre-right government decided on Wednesday.

The Black Sea state’s government said it would also abstain in a subsequent vote on a resolution in the UN General Assembly to endorse the already adopted pact in a move that highlights how Europe has turned colder on accepting foreigners.

At least ive other EU countries, including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, have already shunned the accord - a sign of how the bloc has turned increasingly restrictive on accepting refugees and migrants alike since a 2015 spike in arrivals.

“At this stage, the Bulgarian government believes that the decision not to join the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, protects to the fullest extent the interests of the country and its citizens,” it said.

The pact, which addresses issues such as how to protect people who migrate, how to integrate them into new countries and how to return them to their home countries, was approved in July by all 193 member nations except the United States, which backed out last year.

It followed the biggest inlux of migrants into Europe since World War Two, many leeing conlicts in the Middle East and beyond.

The issue has led to a government crisis in Belgium, Austria has said it will not sign up and opposition from Italy’s prominent interior minister, the right-wing Matteo Salvini, has thrown Rome’s support into doubt.