New Council of Europe Reports Find Shortcomings in Detention Procedures and Conditions in Bulgaria; Safeguards for Detained Children Weakened

by Andreas Aravossitas  The Council of Europe (COE) has recently published two reports on Bulgaria, after sending delegations in the end of 2017 to observe and report on the situation of asylum seekers, migrants and other foreign nationals in Bulgaria. These delegations produced two very enlightening reports on the current situation in Bulgarian administrative detention…

Detention Practices in Canada: a Comparison

by Andreas Aravossitas Canada is often regarded as an exemplary industrialized democracy that excels at handling immigration issues and is welcoming to refugees and migrants. The truth, however, is far from perfect in relation to detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers. While there are certain areas where Canada’s immigration detention system appears to be fair,…

Commentary – Externalization, Returns and Border Control – the Migration Agenda of the Bulgarian Presidency of the EU Council

by Radostina Pavlova, Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria Bulgaria has assumed the Presidency of the Council of the EU at a pivotal moment in European policy making in the area of migration and asylum. Thus, there is truth to the words of Jean-Claude Juncker spoken before the European Parliament Plenary on January 17,…

UN Committee criticizes Bulgaria on detention of asylum seekers and urges the country to develop regularization measures for migrants

Photo: Victoria Nicolova The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD)[1] adopted on 11 May 2017 its concluding observations on the combined twentieth to twenty-second periodic reports of Bulgaria. CERD welcomes some positive amendments of the national legislation, namely the amendments to the Law on Foreigners in 2013 to prohibit the detention…

“Migration – concepts, statistics, trends, distinctions, paranoia,” CLA – Voice in Bulgaria and BLHR in front of Radio “Binar”

Discussion with lawyers Yordanka Bekirska and Diana Radoslavova Hosts: Anelia Velinova and Vladislav Katsarski On March 30, 2017, attorney-at-law Yordanka Bekirska from “Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights” Foundation (BLHR) and attorney-at-law Diana Radoslavova of the Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria (CLA), talked for an hour on the topic “Migration – terms statistics…

The State of Migration Deals with Turkey – the View from Bulgaria

By Radostina Pavlova, radostinapav@gmail.com The date 18 March 2017 marked the one-year anniversary of the EU-Turkey Statement,[1] commonly known as the “EU-Turkey deal”. The deal was meant to stem migration flows from Turkey towards Europe’s shores, offering Turkey in exchange visa liberalization in the foreseeable future and a financial injection in the amount of 3…

Humanitarian safe passages still a chimera in the EU

By Borislav Dimitrov, boryslav.p@gmail.com On March 7th, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in the case of X and X v État belge (Case C-638/16 PPU) that Member States are not required, under the Visa Code Regulation (the “Visa Code”) and European Union (EU) law in general, to grant a humanitarian…