Bulgarian tourists were kept for 5 days at airport in Mexico without explanation (update)

Mexico refuses to accept Bulgarian tourists, the association "Future for Tourism" said. For the past 3 months, 27 Bulgarians who arrived at the airport in Cancun for holidays have been sent back to Bulgaria. Some of them had to stay for 4 days in closed cell-like rooms. The explanation given by the uniformed persons who kept the Bulgarian tourists was that they did not have a prepaid hotel and although they presented accommodation vouchers, the Bulgarians were sent back.

The return of Bulgarian tourists from Mexico, despite having all the necessary documents, began last October. The cases are only from Cancun airport. Among the most affected are the family of Elena and Galin Efendiev from Burgas and Elena's sister, who arrived in Mexico at the beginning of January expecting a wonderful two-week holiday in a five-star hotel, having all the necessary reservations.

However, at the jet bridge, a migration officer collected their passports, took photographs of them, at which they did not pay attention at the time, collected their mobile phones and searched them. This was followed by the men being separated from the women and, without any explanation, they were locked in separate rooms, together with Lithuanians and Armenians, and so they remained there for five days.

Elena Paraskova: "In the room where we women were, in order to get to the bathroom, we had to walk through 3 cm deep water. Our feet were wet all the ttime. It's a room lined with stone and the temperature was about 10-12 degrees. When you're dressed in lothes with short sleeeves, in shorts and barefoot, it's not comfortable at all. The first night they brought a hypothermia blanket for my pregnant sister to wrap herself in. We didn't have bottled water, clean drinking water, for 48 hours. They brought food, which came at different times of the day - breakfast came at noon, lunch came in the evening, and dinner came at 11:00 at night. They brought some bags of water, lemon and sugar that tasted like fizzy lemonade. For five days they fed us the same thing - rice, mashed beans and boiled zucchini. We ate it as there was nothing else to eat."

Galin Efendiev: "We had to survive there somehow. We made it through the 5 days. They kept coming and lying that we would travel the next day in the evening, in the morning. All the time they were explaining that they didn't speak English."

Not knowing what is happening is terrible. The unpleasant feeling of having your lunch brought to you by military with machine guns and being taken away, escorted to the plane by military with machine guns, is also terrible.

The travel agency that arranged the trip of the Bulgarians to Mexico says that each one of them paid at least EUR 2 000 for their holiday, which turned into a nightmare, and that the luggage of many of the deported clients was lost and has not been recovered.

Vasevi family from Pazardzhik were also kept in a room, without documents or phones, without any explanation, but at least they were returned to Bulgaria the same day.

Petya Vaseva, Pazardzhik: We were locked in, after 30-40 minutes they unlocked us, lined us up in two rows and photographed us. They told us to follow them and put us on the plane. The officers didn't want to speak English, they spoke entirely in Spanish. They didn't want to comment at all on why they were returning us. It was a nightmare for us.

“Future for Tourism” association said that more than six Bulgarian companies that have sent tourists to Mexico have reported similar cases.

Rumyana Baltova, “Future for Tourism” Association: There is some fixation at the moment on the part of the Mexican authorities towards young people from Eastern Europe, because all the diversions have been from Eastern Europe. Maybe there is some criminal activity in the area of Mexico and they are watching for young people."

The industry has sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in relation to the returned Bulgarians. They have been informed that the reason given by the Mexican authorities for the refusal is a discrepancy in the information provided by the persons during the interview.

Today, January 25, it became clear that the Bulgarian Embassy in Mexico sent a note to the Mexican authorities asking for official information. Invitations have also been sent for a meeting with the migration authorities at Cancún airport.

The tourism industry in Bulgaria expects joint action by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Tourism to help resolve the case of the Bulgarians returned from Mexico.