Bulgaria and Schengen

Bulgaria – External Border of Schengen

The Bulgarian government is actively searching for Bulgaria to join the Schengen area. Consequently, even more restrictions will be imposed on the asylum seekers to organize a better life freely and humanely.

First, this means building new detention and “reception” centers as well as intensifying the border control coordination.

Under the current regulation the State Agency for Refugees, a ministerial body, is in charge of the functioning “reception centers” in Bulgaria. One of them is situated on the outskirts of Sofia and has a capacity for 500 people. A second one is situated in the Eastern part of Bulgaria, on the outskirts of the village of Banya, and has a capacity for 80 people. A new, called transitional, center has been planned in Pastrogor, in the vicinity of the Bulgarian-Turkish border, for some years. It is supposed to accommodate migrants deemed suitable for the so called fast procedure (see bellow) and has a capacity for 350 people. The opening of the transitional center has been delayed because of corruption allegations. The opening is still expected to happen this year.

The detention centers on the other hand, are being managed by the Ministry of Interior. In addition to the detention center in Busmantzi, very close to Sofia, which has a capacity for 400 people, a new detention center has been opened this summer (2011) in Lyubimetz, close to the Bulgarian-Turkish border. 350 people are supposed to be accommodated there at most. It is a common case for the asylum seekers in Bulgaria to be directly sent to the detention centers instead of being accommodated in the reception facilities and to spend there many months.  

Beyond that, a Black Sea border coordination and information center has been established in 2004 at the seaside of Burgas with active Romanian participation. Germany is one of the main donors of this centers in the context of Bulgaria joining the Schengen agreement. Respective measures are being taken at the seaside of Varna too.

 

Bulgaria – External Border of Schengen

Second, the Schengen arrangement requires a militarization of the boders. After becoming a full member of Schengen, Bulgaria will share the external border of the European Union with Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia and the Black Sea – a total of 1647km. In this context, a special attention is being paid to the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

Among other things, the militarization of the borders results in increasing border staff, more surveillance towers, new military technologies (for example, three new helicopters have been purchased from an Italian corporation for this purpose). Bulgarian policemen are taking part in the FRONTEX mission “Poseidon” along the Greek-Turkish water and land border. Since March 2011 FRONTEX policemen are directly present at the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

Third, all this enables the flourishing of a newly emerged “border industry”. According to the Minister of Interior, Tzvetan Tzvetanov, Bulgaria has spent 160 Mio Euro during the last three years for “strengthening its borders”. 80% of them were financed by the European Union. The deputy Minister of Interior, Dimitar Georgiev, has stated (2011) that the main advantages of Bulgaria joining the Schengen zone are the creation of new jobs, stimulating of foreign investments and safety for the business.

Fourth, Bulgaria has already been issuing visas with biometric data, meaning ten fingerprints and a digital picture, for persons outside of the EU.

Last but not least, the introduction of the Schengen criteria has also provoked the already strong nationalistic trends in the country. For example, only a day after Greece announced its decision to build a wall along its whole land border with Turkey (after that it leaned back for 12,5 km in the northern part of this border), a Bulgarian party called “Society for a new Bulgaria” insisted that such a wall should be built along the whole Bulgarian-Turkish border (250km).

 

Situation of the migrants/refugees               

Besides the general geo-political situation following from the Schengen logic (see above), the migrants/refugees in Bulgaria are facing some specific problems. Formally, all migrants are going through the procedure applied for asylum seekers.

After Entering the country/Applying for the refugee status

Fast procedure and ordinary procedure for granting the refugee status:there are two types of procedure in Bulgaria. The fast procedure enables the border policemen to assess “at their discretion” whether a person is “suitable” for going through the ordinary procedure directly after he/she enters the country. The ordinary procedure is supposed to last for three months but usually takes years. All procedures are primarily oriented towards convincing the asylum seekers in their “voluntary deportation”.    

Administrative problems:Lack of interpreters in different languages at the border facilities and in the detention centers (mostly English), availability of adequate and timely information about the rights of the refugees (f.e. their right to appeal the fast procedure status refusal in 7 days; their right to appeal their imprisonment in the detention center in 3 days), lack of legal help free of charge, lack of a vibrant NGO sector supportive of refugees, being sent directly to the detention center instead of the reception or transitional center, corruption, lack of reliable financial support (30 Euro for the inhabitants of the recetion center, sleeping on the street);

Social Problems:invisibility of the refugees and their problems, racism/attacks;

Protest on behalf of asylum seekers:Javed Nuri from Afghanistan had set himself in flames being imprisoned in a detention center some years ago, hunger strikes (Nigerians 2010, Afghan women 2011), revolt during civil protest outside the detention center in Busmantzi on 27th March 2011;   

After receiving the refugee status

Four kinds of protection:Bulgaria grants a refuge (the President), a temporary protection (for groups of people), a refugee status (State Agency for Refugees), a humanitarian status (SAF);

National Programm for the Integration of the Refugees 2011-2013: speaks openly about cultural assimilation („cultural adapation“), scarce social and material support;

Problems:non-efficient languange courses (600 hours, 6 months), high rates of unemployment, black market, non-visibility in the society, racism/attacks;

 

Number of asylum seekers in Bulgaria from 1993 to 2011

The four main countries of origin of people seeking protection in Bulgaria in the same period were Afghanistan, Irak, Armenia, Iran. The graphic shows an increase of the asylum seekers specifically in 2001 and 2002 (Afghanistan war), then in 2007 (Bulgaria joins the EU) and in 2010 (Bulgaria plans to join Schengen).

 

Number of asylum seekers in Bulgaria and respective decisions taken from 1993 to 2011

The green shows the number of the asylum seekers, the yellow – the granted statuses, the red – the refusals, the purple – the granted humanitarian status. Obviously, the number of undecided cases, still hanging unanswered, is prevailing all the years.

 

NOTE: PowerPoint presentation to be added soon...