Annual report for status determination procedure in Bulgaria for 2019

This report is based on monitoring with a focus on the institutional framework and the effective interaction among the various state authorities, as well as on the legal and practical standards for conducting the procedures, as they are regulated in the national asylum and refugee legislation, and the compliance of these standards with the principles of international protection and the general legal standards in the asylum acquis of the European Union (acquis communautaire).

During the period 1 January – 31 December 2019 the monitoring was carried out by three lawyers and it focussed on the procedural actions at the territorial units of the State Agency for Refugees with the Council of Ministers, the individual administrative decisions issued on applications for international protection and the court proceedings for examining appeals against such acts. A total of 595 procedural actions were subject to monitoring, which conform to the same number of applicants for international protection, including 424 men, 98 women, 31 accompanied children (9 boys and 22 girls), and 42 unaccompanied children (37 unaccompanied underage and 5 unaccompanied minor persons). All the cases of unaccompanied children are boys.