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NGOs, lawyers and UNHCR staff have unhindered access to all border and inland detention centres and try to provide as much information as possible related to detention grounds and conditions.[1] Despite that, the subject remains difficult to explain, and an extremely high percentage of asylum seekers claim not to understand the reasons for being detained.
The LAR provides that, where there are indications that the individuals in detention facilities or at border crossing points may wish to make an asylum application, the government shall provide them with information on the possibility to do so.[2] The information should at least include how to apply for asylum and the procedures to follow, including in immigration detention centres, and interpreted in the respective language to assist asylum seekers’ access to procedure. This obligation is not fulfilled in practice, as no one among SAR staff is visiting or consulting potential asylum seekers who are apprehended at the border or in immigration detention centres, where the provision of information depends entirely on legal aid NGOs’ efforts and activity.
In those detention facilities and crossing points, Bulgaria is also legally bound to make arrangements for interpretation to the extent necessary to facilitate individual access to the asylum procedure. In practice, however, interpretation services are not secured by the authorities, and the only services in this respect are provided by the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee under UNHCR funding. Although Article 8(2) of the recast Asylum Procedures Directive, allowing organisations and persons providing advice and counselling to asylum applicants to have effective access to applicants present at border crossing points, including transit zones at external borders, is transposed in the national law,[3] in practice there are no other NGOs besides the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee which provide regular legal assistance in these areas. Other NGOs such as Centre for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights and Foundation for Access to Rights provide project-based and targeted legal assistance in the Busmantsi pre-removal detention centre. At the end of 2016 the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Bulgaria received the first of many AMIF funding cycles to also provide legal counselling on status determination procedure to asylum seekers in reception centres and to irregular migrants in detention centres regarding assisted voluntary return. This assistance however is not conditioned by requirements about the qualifications of assistance providers and is ensured through shifting mobile teams on a weekly schedule. During the period 2020-2021 IOM restricted its visits to detention centres in Busmantsi and Lyubimets, while during 2022, 2023 and 2024 its reception rooms remained locked with no services provided.
Concerning urban asylum seekers and refugees living in the Sofia region, UNHCR has funded an Information Centre, run by the Red Cross along with an Information Bureau for Third Country Nationals, co-funded by Sofia Municipality, both located in Sofia. In 2024, in these two centres, the Red Cross provided 2,991 consultations and different types of information, while in SAR reception centres the organization provided 11,757 social consultations and services.[4]
In 2022, UNHCR and UNICEF opened and operated “Blue Dot” services at two main border entry points in Ruse and Durankulak as well as in the rest of the major hot-spots in Sofia, Varna, Dobrich and Burgas, which after the beginning of the war In Ukraine received and hosted large number of Ukrainian refugees.[5] These services were managed by the regional branches of the Red Cross, and assisted by the Helsinki Committee, the Council of Refugee Women and representatives from the refugee community. The Blue Dots were closed on 1 January 2024 and from mid-March replaced by the so-called Compass network of protection and inclusion centres, funded by UNHCR. These centres are run by different NGO partners of UNHCR such as Red Cross, Ukraine Support and Renovation Foundation, Energy Association Varna, Caritas Bulgaria, and Foundation for Access to Rights in Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas, Varna, Dobrich, and Ruse. These centres were aimed to serve as protection and inclusion community hubs to promote collective empowerment, integration, and social cohesion for refugees of all nationalities and vulnerable people among the local host communities alike, through comprehensive support tailored to their diverse needs[6]. In 2024, the Compass centres provided assisted 17,879 individuals received support to access social services, 6,413 children and caregivers received child services, 1,256 individuals benefitted from livelihoods and economic inclusion interventions and 1,092 individuals received support for access to employment.
Starting from 1 January 2025 the UNHCR ceased to support any legal or social counselling or assistance directly provided to asylum seekers in SAR reception centers through its NGO partners Red Cross, Helsinki Committee, Council of Refugee Women and Caritas, and left these kinds of services to be provided exclusively in its Compass centers. Therefore, in 2025 no direct services or assistance by NGOs or UNHCR will be provided to asylum seekers in the SAR reception centers, except in Harmanli, where the NGO Helsinki Committee has its regional office situated within the center’s compound.
[1] For more information, see General Directorate Border Police, UNHCR and BHC, 2021 Annual Border Monitoring Report: Access to territory and international protection, May 2022, available at: http://bit.ly/2jsyglh, para 1.1.3.
[2] Article 58(6) LAR; Article 8(1) recast Asylum Procedures Directive.
[3] Article 23(3) LAR.
[4] Teleconference with the Red Cross, Refugee service director Alexandra Vassileva on 7 February 2025.
[5] UNHCR Bulgaria, UNHCR and UNICEF open Blue Dot support hubs for Ukrainian refugees in Bulgaria, 9 May 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3eCAxgq.
[6] UNHCR Bulgaria, Compass Bulgaria Network of Protection and Inclusion Centres, available here.