When and how can you be detained when seeking asylum in Bulgaria?
Your physical liberty is one of the fundamental human rights. Nobody has the right to limit your physical liberty without a good reason. State authorities are allowed to detain you when you arrive in Bulgaria to apply for asylum. However, as detention is a very severe restriction of your liberty, detention in an asylum context is only permitted in specific situations and following the procedure prescribed by law. The grounds for this detention are explained in Asylum and Refugees Act and the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act.
Moreover, while in detention you must be treated humanely. Namely, you must be held in appropriate conditions and protected from all forms of abuse.
Detention & Human rights
Even though detention is permitted by national and international law, it has to be executed lawfully and non-arbitrarily. This means that the grounds for your detention must be legally prescribed, the authorities must follow clearly set procedures and they must treat you humanely. During the detention process, such human rights as the right to liberty and security, the right to life, the prohibition of inhumane or degrading treatment and torture, and the right to private life may be affected.
About this section
This section will explain how you may be detained and the grounds for detention to be lawful, the basic rights you have during detention, where you will stay and how you must be treated. It will also explain how you can complain about the issues related to your detention.