Author
The law explicitly mentions the obligation of the SAR to provide information to asylum seekers within 15 days from the submission of the application.[1] The SAR must provide the information orally, if necessary, in cases where the applicant is illiterate.
The information should cover both rights and obligations of asylum seekers and the procedures that will follow in general. Information on existing organisations that provide social and legal assistance has to be given as well. Information has to be provided in a language the asylum seeker declared that he or she understands or, when it is impossible, in a language the asylum seeker may be reasonably supposed to understand.
In practice, the information is always provided to asylum seekers in writing, in the form of a leaflet translated in the languages spoken by the main nationalities seeking asylum in Bulgaria, such as Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Urdu, Pashto, Kurdish, English and French. Information by leaflets or, where needed, in other ways (UNHCR or NGO info boards) is usually provided from the initial application (e.g. at the border) until the registration process is finished.[2] Since the end of 2017, information boards are placed in all reception centres, indicating the respective movement zones applicable for the asylum seekers there accommodated, to reflect the needs following the 2015 reform of the LAR (see Freedom of Movement).[3] SAR centres also display information boards which indicate the place and time where applicants can obtain information from the agency’s staff about the development of their status determination procedures.
In 2016, it was reported by NGOs working on legal aid[4] that the written information, however, is complicated and not easy to understand. No further reports have been published since then, as the matter is not considered a priority given the high rate of absconding for applicants registered in the country. The common leaflet and the specific leaflet for unaccompanied children drafted by the Commission as part of the Dublin Implementing Regulation are not being used in Bulgaria or being provided to asylum seekers.[5] The same applies to the information provided on the SAR’s website, which is also available only in Bulgarian.
Since 2018, several animated videos provided by UNHCR are made available in the reception centres. This includes a video targeting children which provides information on their daily routine and the importance of school attendance. The video is 1 hour and 40 minutes long and is available in Urdu, Pashto and Dari. Another video of 7 minutes, available in English, Arabic, Dari, Pashto and Kurdish Kurmanji, provides introductory information relating to the asylum procedure as well as rights and obligations during the procedure. Four other videos are dedicated to information on human trafficking and sexual exploitation. They are available in English with Pashto subtitles and address targeted messages to unaccompanied children. However, practice indicates that these videos are not screened on a regular basis. This considered, the obligation to deliver written information is fulfilled in 94% of monitored cases.[6]
The applicants who are placed in closed centres should further receive information about the internal rules applicable to the respective centre as well as about their rights and obligations. Under national law, information should be provided in a language they understand.[7] This obligation was not met in 2020 and 2021. 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). During the procedure such efforts were undertaken mainly with regard to children below age of 14, children with specific needs or such identified as being at increased risk of trafficking or harm. Following the recognition and status granting these efforts targeted all unaccompanied children, excluding those in family reunification procedures, allowed to wait the reunification with their parents or other family members in SAR reception centres.[8] However, the majority of the children hesitate to leave the familiar conditions of the reception centres. Therefore, 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 of the unknown.
NGOs, in particular UNHCR’s implementing partners, develop and distribute other leaflets and information boards that are simpler and easier to read and some do operate reception desks where this kind of information is also provided orally to the asylum seekers by BHC or the Red Cross. In 2018, the information on asylum.bg – the online accessible tool, whose development was funded in 2014 by UNHCR – was revised and made available in audio version for illiterate users. In 2022, an additional section on temporary protection in Ukrainian was added. In 2023, asylum.bg registered 20,873 individual viewers.
[1] Article 58(8) LAR.
[2] EASO, Stock taking report on the asylum situation in Bulgaria, March 2014, 3.2. Asylum Determination Procedure.
[3] Article 29(1)(2) LAR.
[4] Information provided by the Protection Working Group, 29 November 2016.
[5] Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 118/2014 of 30 January 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1560/2003 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national.
[6] Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, 2023 Annual Refugee Status Determination Monitoring Report, 31 January 2024, available at: https://bit.ly/49TvJdp.
[7] Art. 45d (3) LAR.
[8] SAR, Rules and procedures on the accommodation of unaccompanied children granted international protection in foster families, social or integrated socio-medical care facilities for children of a residential type, adopted in October 2022.