In the frames of:
Glocal and Outsiders - Connecting Cultures in Central Europe
3^rd Prague Biennial. Karlin Hall, Prague, the Czech Republic

Sometime in 2001 they got rid of the Schengen visa for holders of Bulgarian passports. That however meant that all BG citizens who wanted to benefit from the visa-free regime with the Schengen countries had to apply for the new kind of BG passport. This new kind of passport was meant only for travel outside of BG. It was quite expensive to get (for the time) and they said that it is virtually impossible to fake with the new technology used to produce these passports and the more then 25 different protective gadgets and devices integrated into its design and making. But – every single citizen of BG was entitled to get one and there was hidden in there a beautifully unique source of wealth and transgressive wickedness.

At some point in 2001 all those people dealing in BG with human trafficking across the borders got wind of this situation – they saw a window of opportunity there and they used it for about 1 – 1 ½ years. I read about the scheme they came up with around 2003 when the scam had already been abandoned. At nearly the same time I was doing this advertisement campaign for the small “business” of Stefan and his sons-in-law, a family of Roma (gypsy) people whom I had known since the 1980ies. The two things clung together in my mind ever since and the urban visuality in Sofia of the time after 1989 was the common denominator for that – you look at something and you think it’s what it looks to be; but actually it is something quite different. For instance, in this kind of visuality: if it looks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, and if it flies like a duck – it is most likely an advertisement for a duck, either that or somebody’s uncle has died of a heart attack…

Well, to go back to the main story… At that same time in 2001-2002 there seemed to be a huge accumulation of migrants/refugees from Sri Lanka around the outer borders of Bulgaria and mainly on the Turkish part/side. All they wanted was a free passage to Western Europe and a chance for a new start. But they did not have neither the right kind of passport nor the Schengen visa to go with the passports they had.

In a stroke of genius “creative racism” (which actually benefited from and revealed the hidden racist expectations and attitudes if any border guard around the world) the Bulgarian people-traffic facilitators and operators found the scheme that actually left everybody happy and did not harm anyone if we do not count the various state borders that were neglected. What they did was the following:

a/ you identify a suitable group of Sri Lankan people - one or many, male or female, it did not matter;

b/ you take good photos of their faces;

c/ with these photos in hand you go around the urban communities of the Roma people that one can find in any larger city in Bulgaria, from Sofia and Plovdiv, to Varna, Sliven, Silistra, Turnovo and so on;

d/ then you try and find Bulgarian Roma persons who are the closest match to somebody from the Sri Lankan contingent you are working with in terms of look-alike characteristics;

e/ the rest is easy – well, you know… you urge the Roma look-alike to get a real BG passport for travel abroad and you assist him/her all along the process; you of course, cover his/her administrative expenses and you pay him/her a fee for going into the whole trouble; then you must actually buy this genuine BG passport from the “original” or else the “original” might think again about the situation… (Usually they do not as they are too happy to have earned some money and besides, they have no use for these passports anyway).

After you have done all of this you can go back to the Sri Lankan contingent and sell the truly genuine BG passport to the most obvious Sri Lankan look-alike. Here is where you actually make the real profit as the margin between what you give to the Roma “original” and what you get from the Sri Lankan “look-alike” might be dramatically large.

If you are in the mood, you might mention to the buyer that he/she should stay away from Bulgarian borders guards or police in case they try to check the language proficiency of the newly born BG passport holder. But usually the clients know that already. And once they have this passport, well, the world is theirs for the taking!

PS I don’t remember how the scheme was discovered. I only read about in the press. I have been thinking about it for a long time and decided to symbolically “give back” the BG passport (mine) to the Roma person whom I know best, Stefan from this advertisement campaign. I strongly believe that in each one us humans there is at least one Roma person drowsing and waiting to get out and make the world a better place. Further more I strongly believe that:

Roma in BG = BG in EU

In other words there will not be BG integration in EU unless there is Roma integration in BG.

PS. BG stands for Bulgaria.