According to Art. 25, para. 1 of the Law on Asylum and Refugees, a guardian or a
custodian shall be appointed for any unaccompanied minor or juvenile foreigners under
the conditions and procedure set forth in the Family Code. The fifth paragraph of that
provision provides for when such is not appointed, the minor foreigner to be
represented in the proceedings under art. 15, para 7 of the Law on Child Protection, i.e.
by Directorate "Social Assistance" - through a representative who expresses an opinion
and failing to do so – to submit a report. After obtaining protection, these persons again
remained defenceless, vulnerable and without significant adult to care, educate and
supervise over them.
It is necessary to initiate legislative changes that regulate the
representation of unaccompanied persons in accordance with the requirements of
Art. 19 (1) of Directive 2003/9 /EC of 27th January 2003 laying down the
minimum standards for reception in the members of asylum seekers and
Directive 2005/85/EC of 1st December 2005 on the minimum standards
concerning the procedure for granting or depriving of a refugee status in the
Member States.
3. Integration of persons that have been granted an international
protection
Despite the progress in a number of activities of SAR with the Council of
Ministers, for me, as a national ombudsman, acting for the NPM, crucial remains the
problem of the integration of persons that have been granted an international protection
in 2014. The implemented National Programme for Integration of Refugees in the
Republic Bulgaria (2011-2013) was characterized by limited territorial scope and a
small number of recipients. Significantly increased the number of persons who have
been granted international protection in 2013 and in the first half of 2014, needed the
timely adoption of a flexible and effective integration programme to meet the changed
conditions.
The national strategy for the integration of persons that have been granted
international protection in the Republic of Bulgaria (2014-2020) was approved by
decision of the Council of Ministers on a meeting held on 2nd July 2014.The lack of an
annual action plan for 2014 thereto, which to contain measures in the priority
areas, in practice block the process of integration of the persons that have been
granted international protection in Bulgarian society and their access to the social
system, labour market, education, health care, etc. in 2014. An example of such
alarming trend, found during the inspections of the NPM, is the extended stay of persons
already granted a humanitarian or refugee status in the territorial units of SAR, as they
do not have the funds to rent a home. According to Art. 35 of the Law on Asylum and
Refugees "any alien (foreigner) who has been granted refugee or humanitarian status,
shall be obliged, within 14 days of the receipt of the decision for the award of such
status, to appear at the municipality in the population centre where he/she will settle, to
be entered in the residents register". Staying at the centres of the SAR is possible by
signing by foreigners of deliberate statements that allow them to stay and receive food
twice a day up to 6 months as from the entry into force of the decision for the award of
the status. A repeat of increased migration flow from the second half of 2013 will
require early forced eviction of residents from the centres, which will doom many of the
persons that have been granted protection to homelessness and shall create social
tension.
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