Afghani Refugees in Bulgaria: Update on a Forgotten Crisis

Commentary from Desislava Todorova – Lawyer and Board member of Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria The withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from Afghanistan and the subsequent abrupt takeover by the Taliban in the summer of 2021 triggered an increase of asylum applications (Актуална информация | ДЪРЖАВНА АГЕНЦИЯ ЗА БЕЖАНЦИТЕ (government.bg)) of Afghani nationals…

Escalation of Push-backs from Bulgaria’s borders

Commentary from Diana Radoslavova – Director of Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria Since the beginning of 2022, more than 150 reports of unlawful practices of forcible repulsion of asylum-seekers from the territory of Bulgaria, the so-called push-backs, have been received by the „Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria“ (CLA) and…

Bulgaria: Migrants Brutally Pushed Back at Turkish Border

(Brussels) – Bulgarian authorities are beating, robbing, stripping, and using police dogs to attack Afghan and other asylum seekers and migrants, then pushing them back to Turkey without any formal interview or asylum procedure, Human Rights Watch said today. “Bulgarian authorities are brutally and summarily pushing back migrants and asylum seekers across the land border with Turkey,”…

New Report on Applying Alternatives to Detention in Bulgaria Published by the CLA

Earlier this summer, the CLA published the report “Applying Engagement-Based Alternatives to Detention of Migrants in Bulgaria: Opportunities and Challenges”. The report is based on the work implementing the 2-year project “Protecting Migrants with Precarious Status: Decreasing the use of Detention and Applying Community-Based Alternatives”, funded by the European Programme for Integration and Migration (EPIM). From…