site.btaEuropean Institute Foundation Identifies Problems with Social, Health Status of Arriving Refugees

The lack of information on the social and health status of the refugees arriving in Bulgaria was noted as a problem by the European Institute Foundation. At a press conference at the BTA National Press Club in Sofia on Thursday, the results of the project "BRACE & PROTECT - Capacity Building and Policy Recommendations on Vulnerable Third-Country Nationals Seeking or Granted Temporary Protection" were presented.

The project focuses on refugees arriving and staying on the territory of Bulgaria, mainly from Ukraine, said Lubov Panayotova, Director of the European Institute. She pointed out that it is funded by the Norwegian Fund, which supports Bulgaria in the field of internal security. Their project focuses on training Border Police officers, the Migration Directorate and other structures of the Ministry of Interior, and the State Agency for Refugee Protection.

Bulgaria is more of a transit destination for Ukrainians, said Ivo Zhelev, an expert analyst on the project. He noted that 180,000 people have been granted temporary protection and 72,000 are currently residing on the territory of the country. According to him, the main problem is that refugees arriving in Bulgaria are not interviewed about their social and health status. There is no information about their education and qualifications, what income they rely on and for what period of time it would be enough for them, nor about the status of the children who travel. During these two years, the number of unaccompanied children was under 500, and they were often accompanied not by their parents but by other relatives, Zhelev said. In his words, the social care of refugees is often provided by NGOs.

Ruska Boyadzhieva, an expert analyst on the project, focused on the development of a local mechanism for support and social orientation of persons and families from third countries seeking or granted protection. According to her, the mechanism is meant to fill the information gap in the protection system, as for the first time this country is facing such a large flow of refugees. Several documents have been developed, one of which is a context analysis regarding the municipalities of Primorsko and Pomorie, as there is a large concentration of Ukrainian refugees there, she said.

Three years ago, Bulgaria was criticized for not taking measures to identify victims of migrant trafficking, said Antoaneta Vassileva, Vice President at the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA). She noted that large flows of migrants, including irregular ones, pass through this country. Vassileva said that at the end of the year, Bulgaria will host the fourth evaluation round of the Council of Europe, which will focus on what measures Bulgaria is taking with regard to vulnerable groups to prevent migrant trafficking.

Ivan Sharenkov, an expert analyst on the project, focused on the legal issues concerning the status of refugees. "Ukrainian citizens meet all the requirements for refugee status. They were admitted on the basis of the European Temporary Protection Directive, given a specific status and temporary protection, and not all were given access to apply for international protection in order to receive humanitarian protection and refugee status," he explained. Sharenkov noted that the temporary protection status, which is a group status, should be abolished and replaced by international protection, which is an individual assessment procedure.

Assoc. Prof. Ivan Vidolov, expert-analyst of the project, presented the main conclusions of the analysis with recommendations for further development of policy and legislation in the field of asylum and migration, and granting temporary protection. He stated that the analysis is related to the overall legislation on the temporary protection status of persons. The aim is to establish to what extent the texts of the Directive have been transposed into Bulgarian legislation. "Our legislation meets the spirit and ideas of the Temporary Protection Directive," Vidolov said. He noted that persons with temporary protection status have a more limited range of rights. As a recommendation, he made a suggestion to ensure access to higher education for these persons as well.