Since the beginning of 2022, Center of Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria (CLA) and our partner organization Mission Wings have received hundreds of reports of illegal practices of forcibly repelling asylum seekers from the territory of Bulgaria, the so-called push-backs.
The issue of forcibly pushing back asylum seekers from the border is not new. This phenomenon can be observed not only in Bulgaria, but also along the entire EU land and sea borders, as reported by numerous human rights organisations. It is not just the result of individual actions by officials abusing their power, but is unfortunately an extreme form of a long-term unbalanced migration policy, stigmatising migration as a whole as something dangerous and focusing on prevention, detention, return and enforcement measures rather than on managing and facilitating migration processes.
Access to the territory of the host country is one of the fundamental principles of refugee law. Asylum seekers can only enjoy the rights provided for in international and European law once they have entered the territory. Any public official – border guards, police officers, migration officers, officials in any other administration – to whom a foreigner who has entered our territory declares that he or she is seeking protection has the obligation under Article 58 of the Bulgarian Asylum and Refugee Act (ARA) to refer him or her to the competent institution in the country – the State Agency for Refugees. It does not matter whether the asylum seeker enters with or without a visa, with or without a regular travel document, through a checkpoint or across a green border. It does not matter whether they have entered our territory and are at the checkpoint itself, a few kilometres from the border or deep inside the country. In the case of seeking protection, because of the exceptional nature of the situation in which the persons find themselves (fleeing persecution or war), they are exempt from criminal liability for breaches of our border and immigration regime – Art. 279 para. 3 of the Bulgarian Penal Code. At the same time, any official who fails to comply with his/her legal obligation to ensure access to the territory of the asylum seeker and to refer him/her to the competent institution is liable for violating the administrative provisions laid down in the LAS and is subject to administrative liability. Furthermore, if the acts of repulsion are accompanied by the use of violence, bodily harm, threats, insults, robbery or acts degrading to human dignity, the perpetrator shall be criminally liable under the Criminal Code for an offence committed by an official within the scope of his official duties.
“HERE HERE – for safe access to refugee protection” is an initiative that attempts to bring the human into the tangle of policies. It was launched as part of the project “Effective Legal Aid for Refugees and Migrants in Bulgaria – a continuation”, implemented within the framework of the Second Call for Strategic Projects of the Active Citizens Fund Bulgaria under the EEA Fund 2014-2021 by the Centre of Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, Access to Rights Foundation – FAR and Mission Wings Foundation. The special VR event organized within the initiative was made possible in partnership with the experts from LENS2LENS production organization.
RELATED MATERIALS:
Video testimonies of victims of violent reprisals :
The campaign HERE, funded by the Active Citizens Fund
Opinion with recommendations: Access to territory: Gateway to the right to asylum
PUBLIC STATEMENT on forcibly repelling a person granted humanitarian status in Bulgaria Follow our news on https://detainedinbg.com/blog/category/pushbacks/
