Stranded migrants struggle in hostile Bulgaria Syrian refugees struggle to integrate in Bulgaria, the European Union's poorest country: Fahim Jaber and his wife Fatima Batayi were met with hostility, refused registration and forced to move out from the small town of Elin Pelin, just outside Sofia, where they wanted to settle, while fellow Syrian Bilal Hasan and his wife and three children received a warmer welcome but complain the state does nothing to help their integration.