“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 2016 Asylum Information Database report finds that detention of asylum seekers is systematically applied in Bulgaria

The Asylum Information Database (AIDA) published its 2016 report on Bulgaria. The report documents thoroughly recent legislative reforms and policy developments in relation to the asylum procedure, reception and detention, as well as integration. AIDA is an initiative coordinated by the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) that aims to provide up-to date information…

“Center for Legal Aid – “Voice in Bulgaria” begins new project on limiting detention and supporting migrants at risk

“Center for Legal Aid – “Voice in Bulgaria” (CLA), in partnership with Bulgarian Lawyers for Human Rights (BLHR), begins work on a new project focused on helping migrants at risk integrate into the community instead of being detained. The project is called: “Protecting migrants with precarious status: decreasing the use of detention and applying community-based…

Final Report: “Who Gets Detained? Increasing the Transparency and Accountability of Bulgaria’s Detention Practices of Asylum Seekers and Migrants”

(the full text of the report can be accessed here: in English and in Bulgarian) Between August 17, 2015 and August 16, 2016, the Center for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria (CLA) completed the project “Who Gets Detained? Increasing the Transparency and Accountability of Bulgaria’s Detention Practices of Asylum Seekers and Migrants”.* Through an…

DETAINED Website Featured in International Detention Monitor

(originally published in International Detention Monitor by the International Detention Coalition on May 11, 2016 at http://idcoalition.org/news/increasing-the-transparency-of-bulgarias-detention-practices/) Increasing Transparency of Bulgarian Detention: New Website How easy or difficult is it to find out information about immigration detention in Bulgaria?  One of members, The Centre for Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria, is tackling this very issue…

Migrant Detention in Bulgaria: Numbers and Graphs

As part of the Who Gets Detained? project, over the course of 10 months starting in August 2016, the team of the Center of Legal Aid – Voice in Bulgaria collected statistics on the number and characteristics of the people who end up behind the walls of the closed centres for foreigners, and of those who are arrested and…

A Legal Victory: Detained Migrants in Bulgaria Can No Longer Be Subjected to Body Searches or Solitary Confinement

by Radostina Pavlova A landmark decision of the Bulgarian Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) from January 2016 may improve substantially the state of human rights for detainees in the closed centres for foreigners awaiting deportation, sparing them the humiliation and pain of body searches and solitary confinement. The ruling in successful lawsuit against the Ministry of…