Author
There are no specific rules for information provided on rights and obligations relating to reception conditions. Asylum seekers obtain the necessary information on their legal status and access to the labour market through the information sources with regard to their rights and obligations in general (see section on Information on the Procedure).
The SAR has an obligation to provide information in a language comprehensible to the asylum seekers within 15 days from filing their application, which has to include information on the terms and procedures and rights and obligations of asylum seekers during procedures, as well as the organisations providing legal and social assistance.[1] However, in reality this was not provided within the 15-day time period laid down in Article 5 of the recast Reception Conditions Directive. In practice, prior to the increased number of asylum seekers, this information was given upon the registration of the asylum seeker in SAR territorial units by way of a brochure. Monitoring from the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee in 2023 established that oral guidance on determination procedures is provided by caseworkers in the majority of the cases (94%) with written instruction also served in 82% of the cases. However, in 41% of the monitored cases, when the written instructions were provided during the registration, it was not in a language that asylum seekers knew or could understand. In the remaining 18% the written information was not provided to asylum seekers. [2]
Since 2018, some animated video information is available at the reception centres of the SAR to provide introductory information relating the rights and obligations during determination procedures. The animated videos are available in Arabic, Pashto, Dari and Kurdish Kurmanji. The law also envisages that additional information relating to the internal regulations applied in the closed centres have to be provided to asylum seekers detained therein, but this has not been delivered in practice (see Conditions in Detention Facilities).[3] The web platform asylum.bg, which provides legal and practical information on national determination procedures is available also in audio format to ensure the access to credible information to illiterate asylum seekers.
In 2022, UNICEF developed for SAR special videos in Arabic and Farsi/Dari/Pashto languages targeting as audience the unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children. The videos aim to promote the specialized childcare facilities (ЦНСТ) where the children should be accommodated after the recognition, but also can be accommodated during the asylum procedure. Since mid-2022, the SAR began to actively search for opportunities to accommodate unaccompanied children in licensed family-type children’s centres (ЦНСТ). However, the majority of the children do hesitate to leave the familiar conditions of the reception centres. That is why the videos show-case other children who have been already accommodated in specialized childcare facilities who share their positive experience thus assisting to mitigate the existing prejudice among the children in reception centres and their anxiety in view of facing an unknown situation.
[1] Article 58(8) LAR.
[2] Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2023 Annual Refugee Status Determination Monitoring Report, 31 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/3SX3ST7.
[3] Article 45e(1)(5) LAR.