http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/bulgaria0414_ForUpload_0_0.pdf
Bulgaria’s Pushbacks and Detention of Syrian and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants
This 76-page report documents how in recent months Bulgarian border police, often using excessive force, have summarily returned people who appear to be asylum seekers to Turkey. The people have been forced back across the border without proper procedures and with no opportunity to lodge asylum claims. Bulgaria should end summary expulsions at the Turkish border, stop the excessive use of force by border guards, and improve the treatment of detainees and conditions of detention in police stations and migrant detention centers.
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ISBN: 978-1-62313-1258
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- Download the full report (PDF, 6.23 MB)
- Download Annex 1: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior’s Letter to Human Rights Watch (PDF, 96.05 KB)
- Download Annex 2: Human Rights Watch’s Response to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior (PDF, 913.6 KB)
- Purchase the report in print
- Containment Plan
- Map
- A Pushback Victim’s Story
- Summary
- Recommendations
- Methodology
- I. Bulgarian Border Police Pushbacks to Turkey and Abuses upon Apprehension
- II. The Bulgarian Containment Plan and the Principle of Nonrefoulement
- III. Abuses and Detention Conditions in Border Police Stations
- IV. Abuses and Conditions in Migrant Detention Centers
- V. Conditions in Registration and Reception Centers
- VI. Detention and Lack of Care for Unaccompanied Children
- VII. Asylum Seekers Living Outside the Centers
- VIII. Protection Gaps in the Asylum System
- IX. Failure to Support and Integrate Refugees
- Acknowledgements
- Annex 1
- Annex 2