Meet Petar Nizamov: 'migrant hunter' of Bulgaria

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Petar Nizamov hunts through the Strandja mountains on an autumn afternoon. But he is not searching for animals. He is looking for refugees. A self-procaimed "migrant hunter", Nizamov believes he is carrying out a noble mission by finding those who are trying to enter Bulgaria irregularly via Turkey, and persuading them to turn back around. He claims that authorities support his endeavours. He has, though, previously been placed under house arrest and been condemned by rights groups. Pushing people back over the border without processing them is illegal under European Union law. "They're [refugees] coming like an army and they don't respect our society," he told Al Jazeera. "They don't respect our women and they want to make a Syria here."

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Asked what he expected of refugees if they managed to safely arrive in Bulgaria, Nizamov said: "Just slavery, rapes, mass rapes, robberies of people." Petar claims that he only stops undocumented economic migrants, not legitimate refugees. He also says he does not use weapons, but Al Jazeera saw he was armed with a machete on his travels. In mobile phone footage seen by Al Jazeera, Nizamov can be seen ordering three Afghan nationals who are restrained in handcuffs to "go back Turkey now, now", in broken English.

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