


In 2020, Legal Aid Center – Voice in Bulgaria will launch a campaign in support of a legislative initiative to regulate the status of undocumented people in Bulgaria with the support of the Civic Association “Equal BG”.
The campaign is related to the need for a legal pathway for people residing in Bulgaria without a permit (so-called undocumented migrants) to regularise their status. In all types and models in the many countries that have adopted such laws, there are criteria that applicants must meet. This legal pathway is separate from the procedure for protection or for acquiring the right of residence through marriage or other similar grounds. Without such a procedure in place, people are trapped in a closed circle – they cannot be removed from Bulgaria for legal, humanitarian or practical reasons, but at the same time there is no legal way to obtain documents. They live without existing in the legal world in Bulgaria, excluded from all systems of social order and from the possibility of being a constructive part of society. This is detrimental both for them and for the host community.
In coalition with other NGOs and legal experts, in 2020 we developed specific texts to the Law on Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria. You can read them here, together with a detailed description of the problem and the rationale.
An updated January 2024 version of the legal proposals and the rationale can be read here.
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Undocumented people in Bulgaria are everywhere among us. They are in our neighbourhoods, schools, families, on the bus or in the shop.