Not to mention the exploitation of illiterate Bulgarians. Bulgaria has quite a large Turkish-speaking minority. It comprises ethnic Turks and Roma, who began calling themselves Turkish after 1989. Their shared language and religion enable them to easily befriend the large Turkish communities in western Europe.

The networks comprise three levels. The “lieutenants” who are responsible for recruiting people in Bulgaria, are generally slightly better educated and speak more languages that the average citizen. They maintain contact with the person who organises accommodation and registration in the country of destination. And then there are the “big bosses”, ‘people who offer protection. They know how to resolve problems with the police and the law, and have the right contacts to achieve this.

Prof. Petkov bases his conclusions partly on interviews held with Roma people in Brussels. “Belgium is facing the same problem of ‘social tourism’ as the Netherlands,” he insists. One of the reasons that a large portion of Roma in Bulgaria has opted to become Muslim and speak Turkish during the past two decades, is that it renders the Turkish communities more accessible to them. “These communities help them to take up residence, but not to integrate.”

In practice, the first and second generation Turks become the bosses and employers of the Bulgarian newcomers. The same networks which organise “social tourism” are often also involved in prostitution and organising human trafficking for poorly paid illegal jobs through subcontractors in the agricultural sector. “They exploit them.”