A. Border Police establishments; (Read full CPT report)
7. Under the Law on Aliens in the Republic of Bulgaria (LARB), foreign nationals may be detained by the Border Police, on their own authority, for up to 24 hours. If it is needed to prolong the period of detention beyond the 24 hours, the foreign national must be transferred, by decision of the Directorate of Immigration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to a Special Home for Temporary Accommodation of Foreigners or (if the person is suspected of a criminal offence e.g. forgery or human smuggling) to a National Police establishment, pursuant to the Law on the Ministry of Interior and the Code of Criminal Procedure.4 In the latter case, if the person concerned has applied for asylum, he/she may be transferred to the Closed-Type Premises run by the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), hereafter the SAR Closed Unit.
8. It should be stressed as a positive fact that, with very rare exceptions,6 no violations of the above-mentioned 24-hour time-limit have been observed by the CPT’s delegation in the Border Police establishments visited (and that, in most cases, detention periods were shorter). Nevertheless, the Committee recommends that the Bulgarian authorities ensure that the 24-hour time-limit for the custody of persons by the Border Police is always duly respected.
B. Immigration detention facilities
14. As already mentioned in paragraph 3 above, the CPT’s delegation carried out follow-up visits to two immigration detention facilities run by the Directorate of Immigration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, namely the Special Homes for Accommodation of Foreigners in Busmantsi (near Sofia, hereafter the Busmantsi Home) and Lyubimets (located close to the borders with Greece and Turkey, hereafter the Lyubimets Home).18 Both Homes are used to accommodate, for up to 18 months, foreign nationals subjected to administrative detention pursuant to the Law on Aliens in the Republic of Bulgaria (LARB). In Busmantsi, the delegation also paid a visit to the Closed-Type Premises run by the State Agency for Refugees (SAR), hereafter the SAR Closed Unit, adjacent to the Busmantsi Home. The facility is used to accommodate by decision of the Head of SAR, for up to 18 months (or until the final decision on asylum application), asylum seekers who have repeatedly violated house rules in one of the open reception centres run by the SAR or in one of the Homes (upon request of the Directorate of Immigration), those placed there upon request of the State Agency of National Security (because they are considered to represent a threat to national security) and those who, in addition to having applied for asylum, are also suspected or accused of a criminal offence (e.g. human smuggling or forgery of documents).
15. The general description of both Homes is to be found, respectively, in paragraph 25 of the
report on the 2008 ad hoc visit,21 paragraph 34 of the report on the 2010 periodic visit22 and
paragraph 43 of the report on the 2017 periodic visit. At the time of the 2018 ad hoc visit, Busmantsi Home (capacity 40024) was accommodating 150 foreign nationals of 19 nationalities (mostly from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan) including seven women and four minors; 70 of them were asylum seekers.25 The average stay of detained foreign nationals was said to be 25 days. Lyubimets Home (capacity 30026) was accommodating 95 detained foreign nationals27 including two women (there were no minors at the time of the visit); 16 of the detainees had applied for asylum in Bulgaria. The average stay at the Home was said to be 27 days. As regards the SAR Closed Unit, attached to the Busmantsi Home but with a separate secure perimeter and entrance, it had the official capacity of 80 and was accommodating six adult detained foreign nationals (all Afghan asylum seekers) at the time of the visit.
16. The Bulgarian legislation (LARB and Law on Asylum and Refugees, LAR) differentiates between the detention of irregular migrants and asylum seekers, prescribing timelines for ensuring their separate accommodation (a principle which is also advocated by the CPT).30 Namely, Section 58 (4) of the LAR stipulates that when an asylum application is made to another State authority than the SAR (e.g. to Border Police or Directorate of Immigration), the detained foreign national must be transferred to a SAR open reception centre 31 within 6 days. However, the delegation observed at Busmantsi and Lyubimets Homes that the
aforementioned deadline was frequently not respected in practice and many detained foreign
nationals had to wait several months before being transferred to an open reception centre, even if
they had applied for asylum shortly after having been detained. After having examined the relevant
documentation and spoken with some detained foreign nationals, the delegation found that
detainees had on occasion spent up to 17 months at a Home before being transferred to a SAR open
reception centre; during this time, they had often been through all stages of the asylum procedure
(including all appeal phases). In a few cases, foreign nationals would spend several months in a Home, then move to a SAR open reception centre and, after a second negative decision on their asylum application, return to a Home to await deportation for another period of several months. This meant that, although each period of detention did not exceed the legal time-limit of 18 months, the total cumulative detention period could be much longer. The Committee recommends that steps be taken to ensure that Section 58 (4) of the LAR is always duly applied and that, more generally, no foreign national is detained at a Home for a total/cumulative period exceeding the maximum time-limit of 18 months.
17. Regarding the accommodation of minors at Busmantsi and Lyubimets Homes, the CPT notes some positive legislative developments since the 2017 visit, which have contributed to the reduction in the number of minors detained in both establishments. A new Ordinance implementing
the LARB makes it more difficult to detain minors (and reiterates strongly the principle of non-
detention of unaccompanied minors), clarifying the procedure and the tasks of different organs and
agencies including the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. Given that such detention can have a negative psychological effect on the minors’ development and well-being and that, consequently, the placement of minors and their parents in the Homes (and, as applicable, other similar establishments in Bulgaria) should only occur as a last resort (and if, in exceptional circumstances, such placement cannot be avoided, its duration should be as short as possible), the CPT strongly encourages the Bulgarian authorities to continue their efforts in the light of the aforementioned principles.
