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BULGARIA: Migrants Denied Even Medicine
By Claudia Ciobanu
BUCHAREST, Oct 17 (IPS) - Hasun Albaadzh, an asylum-seeker from Syria, died Oct. 6 at the Busmantsi
detention centre on the outskirts of Bulgarian capital Sofia. He had been held at
Busmantsi for 34 months - considerably more than the maximum legal period of
detention - and had been denied proper medical care.
About 200 people are currently detained at the Busmantsi Detention Centre
for Undocumented Immigrants in Sofia. Following the death of Hasun
Albaadzh last week, the migrants at Busmantsi staged a protest against the
illegal prolongation of their detention periods and the violation of their basic
human rights.
According to the Sofia human rights group Civil 21 Initiative, Albaadzh "was
never taken to a specialised hospital, in spite of his multiple complaints and
chronic diseases, which were known to the administration of the centre but
had been treated only with analgesics."
"Alongside protracted periods of detention, malnutrition and lack of
psychological support, one of the most recurrent problems reported by
detainees is extremely poor levels of medical care, lack of medicines and
treatment," says Iliana Savova, director of the refugee and migrant
programme at the human rights NGO Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, which
has researched detention conditions of migrants in Bulgaria.
As Savova told IPS, Busmantsi does not have a permanent medical staff.
Instead, doctors and nurses come there for a month on rotation; this practice
makes the monitoring and treatment of medical conditions of detainees
difficult.
Civil 21 Initiative and three other human rights groups (the Centre for Legal
Help - Voice in Bulgaria, the Legal Clinic for Refugees and Immigrants at Sofia
University, and the Centre for Torture Survivors) have formally asked the
ministry of interior to fully investigate the circumstances leading to
Albaadzh's death.
The groups also drew public attention to the case of Nigerian university
lecturer Jonson Ibitui, who died earlier this year of a massive heart attack
shortly after being released from Busmantsi. According to Civil 21 Initiative,
"the heart attack, coming as a result of psychological stress, is a direct
consequence of the one year of meaningless stay in the detention centre."
In a rare media visit inside Busmantsi, reporters of private Bulgarian television
channel btv recorded last week the complaints of a group of migrants
detained there. "Without food, without clothes and milk for my baby, for six
months already. Why?" complained a young woman holding an infant in her
arms.
A young Palestinian man identified as Azdin asked the same question: why? "I
want to ask why I am here," he told the reporters. "We are asking for refugee
status. Most of us have been here for more than three months, we haven't
done anything wrong. Yes, we are illegal, but we had come here to ask for
refugee status. What kind of democracy is this?"
Migrants can be detained at a centre such as the one at Busmantsi if their
asylum claims have been rejected and they are awaiting deportation, if they
are deemed to be a threat to public order or national security, or if they have
applied for asylum at Busmantsi and are waiting to be transferred to a
reception and accommodation centre.
In any of these cases, huge delays can occur, leading to people being
detained for months and years. Officially, if a migrant asks for refugee status
at Busmantsi, it should take between two and four weeks for the request to
be processed and the person to be released. However, this period is often
prolonged illegally.
In cases when asylum is denied and the applicants are waiting to be returned
to their countries of origin, they can end up in detention for years until the
authorities sort out their documentation and return trips. Bulgarian
authorities blame the countries of origin for slowing down procedures.
"Such is the case with the Indian embassy. They officially say they have
problems with this procedure (of ascertaining the identity of the migrant and
issuing an identity card)," Petar Evrov, a representative of the migration
directorate in the Bulgarian ministry of interior told media. "It is entirely up to
the embassies how long it takes for a foreigner to get his new ID."
Another contentious issue is detention justified by the migrant being declared
a threat to public order or national security. After the Supreme Administrative
Court declares a foreigner to be a threat to public order and security, the
person is detained at Busmantsi pending expulsion.
However, according to Milagros Leynes, UNHCR (United Nations High
Commission for Refugees) representative in Bulgaria, "this court review is
technical in character, without an in-depth analysis of the grounds for
accusation and without requiring any supporting evidence.
"If recognised refugees in Bulgaria were involved in criminal activities, they
should be subject to penal prosecution on equal footing with Bulgarian
citizens, not detained pending deportation," Leynes told IPS.
In May 2009, Bulgaria adopted the European Returns Directive 2008/115
according to which the maximum detention period for a migrant is six
months; the period of detention can be extended to 18 months only in
"exceptional" circumstances and after the case has been judicially reviewed.
Until May 2009, no maximum limit for detention of migrants existed in
Bulgaria.
However, even with the returns directive adopted, migrants coming to
Bulgaria can find themselves detained for over a year and a half. Bulgarian
authorities have not yet determined whether the directive is to be applied
retroactively.
The Administrative Court in Sofia has requested a preliminary ruling from the
European Court of Justice on whether the maximum detention periods should
be applied to people detained prior to the adoption of the directive. The
European Court will look at this ruling Oct. 27.
Another reason why migrants may end up spending years in a Bulgarian
detention Centre is the "arbitrary decisions" of Bulgarian authorities. "After
the adoption of the directive, some of the detainees who had been held for
more than 18 months were released, while others were not," says Kristina
Gologanova from the Assistance Centre for Torture Survivors (ACET) in Sofia.
"For instance, some people who had been detained due to allegations that
they may pose a risk to the national security were released, while others who
had not been suspected of any such threat are still being detained,"
Gologanova told IPS. "This leads to the conclusion that the actions of the
Bulgarian authorities are arbitrary and do not follow a uniform pattern."
The detainees at Busmantsi are told the legal procedures for their release will
be completed, in time. "Time, but what is time, let us translate this," said
Armenian Zaven Grankyan, another Busmantsi detainee interviewed by btv.
"Time is...until we die." (END/2009)
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