Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Chaos At Bulgarian Consulate in Bitola

Bitola. The jam for Bulgarian visas in Bitola goes on for days, the Macedonian Dnevnik Newspaper reported. People living in Eastern Macedonia have traveled 200 km to the town of Bitola in order to join the queues in front of the consulate at dawn. Dnevnik explained that preparing the visas takes only 2 hours and thus people can finish their work in one day. Smart Bitola citizens took advantage of the situation to establish new “profitable business” by selling their place on the queue at EUR 100. Strumica citizens were the most indignant at the situation because they live 20 km from the Bulgarian boundary but they have to travel 200 km in order to obtain a visa. They demanded that the Macedonian diplomacy to take the measures needed. “We amass expenses, and the condition of the roads is awful. We are going to perish for one single visa, which we need to go to work. If the measures needed are not taken soon, chaos will take over the summer season”, a man living in the village of Kuklish, district of Strumica, complained. The Bulgarian diplomatic representation issues about 150 visas per day. University students, tourist agencies and transport companies are those who predominate on the queues. Bulgaria’s council general in Bitola declared that no one enjoys privileges because the licenses have not been issued yet.

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