On 8 April, The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to the European Parliament (LIBE) held a hearing on the Cooperation Frameworks on border and migration management with Bulgaria and Romania. The Cooperation Frameworks build on the results from the six-month Pilots projects, carried out in Bulgaria and Romania in 2023. The exchange…
On 9-10 April 2024, a conference on “Schengen and the New Migration Pact” took place in Sofia, organised by the Bulgarian Fund for Women Foundation under the programme “Mission: possible” within the project “Building an Inclusive Resilient Democratic Society in Bulgaria” (BIRDS in BG), implemented in partnership with the Bulgarian Center for Not-for-Profit Law (BCNL)…
Description The Act no. 2024-42 of 26 January 2024 to control immigration and improve integration, also called “asylum and immigration law” was adopted on 19 December 2023. The main aim of this immigration law proposed by Gerald Darmanin is to “step up removals of illegal immigrants”. It includes a reform of the asylum system to…
Maria Chereseva and Luděk Stavinoha Sofia BIRN February 26 Internal documents show Frontex and the European Commission are well aware of Bulgaria’s dire human rights record on its border with Turkey, but the EU’s executive arm had other priorities – expanding Schengen. In August 2022, a report landed on the desk of the Fundamental Rights Office, FRO, the internal…
Mehran Davari, a rock musician who fears persecution if he is deported because of his involvement in anti-regime protests in Iran, is being held at a detention centre in the Bulgarian capital. Activists are campaigning for the release of Iranian refugee and rock musician Mehran ‘Stefan’ Davari, who was detained last week after living…
Children’s rights are being trampled on at the external borders of the European Union Children and young people are forcibly pushed back at the EU’s external borders (“pushbacks”) and detained after arriving in the EU – a systematic practice in several EU external border states. On the occasion of the meeting of the EU interior ministers…
On the 27 November 2023, the BVMN hosted a webinar with speakers from Refugee Support Aegean, Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration (ASGI) University of Keele and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. We discussed some provisions outlined in the pact – namely, the Screening Regulation, Asylum Procedures Regulation, and the topic of ‘instrumentalisation’ – and how…
Joint Civil Society Statement on Article 5 of the EU Screening Regulation We, the undersigned civil society organisations, express our concerns regarding the potential retention of Article 5 in the proposed EU Screening Regulation (one of key legislative files encompassing the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum) during trilogue negotiations. This provision would extend the…
Details are emerging of EU-funded pilot projects in Bulgaria and Romania to fast-track asylum and fund border technologies. “The results are excellent,” Ylva Johansson, EU’s commissioner for home affairs, told reporters on Thursday (19 October). She said people not entitled to asylum are being prevented from entering, while others are sent home in what she…
Today, six months since the start of implementation of the pilots projects for fast asylum and return procedures, the Commission is reporting on the good progress made by Bulgaria and Romania. Overall, solid results have been achieved with best practices identified in the area of accelerated asylum procedures and effective returns, border management and reinforced cooperation with neighbouring…