Open Letter to Bulgarian Authorities and Frontex

We, the undersigned, are writing to urge you to fulfil the fundamental rights obligations Bulgaria are bound by under the Law on Asylum and Refugees, Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, Directive 2013/32/EU, the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human…

Anti-torture committee calls on European governments to end pushbacks and prevent ill-treatment of foreign nationals at borders

  The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) has called on European governments to protect foreign nationals deprived of their liberty under immigration legislation from any ill-treatment and to put an end to pushbacks at land or sea borders, particularly at the borders of the European Union. In its annual report for 2022, the CPT…

AT EUROPE’S BORDERS: BETWEEN IMPUNITY AND CRIMINALIZATION

Pushbacks and criminalisation of CSOs in Greece – Executive Summary While pushbacks are not a recent phenomenon, the number of cases of reported pushbacks at the land and sea borders of Greece with Turkey has increased since March 2020. At the same time, NGOs and human rights defenders who provide legal aid to victims of…

Bulgaria Accused Of Brutal Border Pushbacks

Bulgaria faces mounting accusations that it is abusing people trying to cross its border with Turkey, with asylum seekers saying they have been pushed back, locked up, stripped and beaten. The EU member serves as a gateway into the bloc and is trying to tighten the border to stop a rising number of people seeking…

BALKAN REGIONAL REPORT–OCTOBER 2022

SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS OF PUSHBACKS AND INTERNAL VIOLENCE DOCUMENTED BY BVMN DURING THE MONTH OF OCTOBER   In October, the Border Violence Monitoring Network (BVMN) shared 35 testimonies of pushbacks impacting 550 people-on-the-move (POM) across the Balkans and Greece. This report brings together first-hand testimonies from a range of countries in the region to look at…

EU Commission wants drones for Bulgaria on Turkey border

  Ursula von der Leyen: ‘The most pressing issue right now are at the land border between Bulgaria and Turkey’ (Photo: European Union 2023 – Source : EP) The European Commission wants to shore up the land border between Bulgaria and Turkey with drones. “We can strengthen the border with management capabilities,” European Commission president Von…

In front of Frontex’s eyes. How Bulgaria keeps refugees in inhumane conditions before returning them to Turkey

https://flashvideo.rferl.org/Videoroot/Pangeavideo/2022/12/0/03/034d0000-0aff-0242-8942-08dad8fa22a7_240p.mp4   Video footage and eyewitness accounts show that Bulgarian police authorities are illegally holding migrants in a barricaded hut without the right to an international protection procedure. They are then returned to Turkey. It is also suspected that this is happening with the knowledge of the Frontex forces in the country. This is a…