The Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria (CLA) is a non-governmental organization based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The mission of the CLA is to promote the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups on the territory of Bulgaria, through legal aid and policy advocacy. Since its founding in 2009, the CLA has promoted progressive legislative reform and raised awareness on asylum, migration and integration issues. We provide pro bono legal consultations to asylum seekers, refugees and migrants, as well as legal representation in administrative and judicial proceedings on the national and European levels.
We also engage in research and monitoring, and in February 2015 published the report “Vulnerability and Protection: Identifying Vulnerable Persons among Asylum Seekers in Bulgaria” as a result of a project conducted in 2013-14 in partnership with Assistance Center for Torture Survivors – ACET, funded through the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area.
The CLA is a member of the international network EuroMed Rights and the International Detention Coalition (IDC) and is collaborating with Migreurop for its first mission in Bulgaria. We are currently implementing the project “Who Gets Detained? Increasing the transparency and accountability of Bulgaria’s detention practices of asylum seekers and migrants” funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM) of the Network of European Foundations (NEF).