A few days ago the new track of BULL$HIT.band with Gabriela Rizova and Krasimir Petrov – “Shelter” was released. But why does it make sense to cover it, here, in our pages.
This is not a song about the struggle of refugees or migrants waiting for years for the lengthy procedures of protection proceedings in Bulgaria. This is a beautiful song by Gabriela Rizova with the BULL$HIT.band, which coincidentally is closely related to the personal experience of one of the musicians in the band – Stefan Davari. Stefan is a long-time client and we can say friend of our organization, who in 2020 becomes the face of one of our main campaigns for the regularization of undocumented foreigners. The group started work and recordings on “Shelter” at a time when Stephan (Mehran Davari) was detained and imprisoned in the Detention Centre-Busmanci in January 2024 – a migration prison for undocumented persons under the Ministry of Interior. We covered Stefan’s story in detail across all our social media outlets earlier this year. Stefan is an Iranian national who has been in Bulgaria for over 13 years. He fled Iran due to political and religious persecution. In Iran he was arrested, beaten, and mentally terrorized. In Bulgaria he is fully integrated, works as a musician, photographer, film director, warehouse worker, supports himself, speaks pure Bulgarian, loves Bulgaria as his own. At the same time he has 9 unsuccessful applications for protection. At the moment, thanks to the massive civil support initiated by the BULL$IT group after Stefan’s detention, he is in the 10th protection procedure and awaiting the decision of the State Agency for Refugees whether he will be granted protection status or not.
And so, on the backdrop of this personal story of seeking protection, the song Shelter is recorded…
Completely naturally, BULL$HIT.band and Stefan dedicate the piece Shelter to the hundreds of undocumented people in Bulgaria looking for shelter, understanding, a way out of the legislative maze they are in! They are the focus of our campaign – “To pave the way – it’s up to us”, for which we have been working for 4 years.
Thank you, BULL$HIT.band , for paving the way with us!
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