Immigration Detention in Bulgaria: Fewer Migrants and Refugees, More Fences

Immigration Detention in Bulgaria (2019 Report): Although the number of irregular non-citizens apprehended in Bulgaria has plummeted in recent years, detention remains a key tool in the country’s response to migration and asylum flows. It has also spent some 85 million EUR to construct a fence along its border with Turkey. Bulgaria’s detention centres reportedly lack […]

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NEWSLETTER: International Women’s Day – Focusing Attention on the Abuses Women Suffer in Immigration Detention

Last week, reports emerged concerning a 24-year-old Honduran woman’s premature labour and subsequent delivery of a stillborn baby while in custody at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Texas. While officials were quick to offer the awkward qualification that “for investigative and reporting purposes, a stillbirth is not considered an in-custody death,” the incident nevertheless added fuel to the growing criticism of the Trump administration’s treatment of vulnerable individuals in detention. […]

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“Red Line”: The Rise in Detention of Asylum Seekers at the External Borders of the EU

Led by the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC), the “Red Line” project is working to reduce unnecessary and unlawful use of detention as a deterrence measure for asylum-seekers and irregular migrants in Europe, with a particular focus upon four key irregular migrant entry states: Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, and Italy. In many such countries, “reception” has morphed […]

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Border Police establishments & Immigration detention facilities from report of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture 2014 visit to Bulgaria)

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 […]

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NEWSLETTER: Immigration Detention: “Never in the Best Interests of Children”

This past summer, people across the globe watched in outrage as children were forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and placed in hastily set up camps and cages. Overlooked in much of the criticism, however, was the fact that children are locked behind bars for immigration-related reasons in dozens of other counties across the globe, all of whom—with the notable exception of the United States—have ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. […]

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Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child: Bulgaria

Global Detention Project Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child 72 Session (17 May 2016 – 03 Jun 2016) Consideration of State Report – Bulgaria (Consolidated Third, Fourth and Fifth Periodic Reports) Geneva, 14 April 2016   Issues concerning immigration detention The Global Detention Project (GDP) welcomes the opportunity to provide […]

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Bulgarian Migration Directorate – Access to Information Request, 12.09.2013

The Bulgarian Migration Directorate’s official responses to an information request submitted by the Global Detention Project and Access Info Europe in 2013 as part of a joint project to map access to migration-related detention data in several dozen countries in Europe and North America. The results of the investigation were reported in the joint publication, […]

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