When and how can you be detained when entering or staying in Bulgaria without legal grounds?
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 enter or stay in Bulgaria without legal grounds. However, as such detention is a very severe restriction of your liberty, it must be lawful and necessary in a democratic society, in accordance with the principle of proportionality, and must have a legitimate aim. The relevant circumstances related to you shall be taken into account upon detention. The grounds for this detention are explained in the Foreigners in the Republic of Bulgaria Act.
Moreover, you must be treated humanely while in detention. Namely, you must be held in appropriate conditions and protected from all forms of abuse.
Detention & Human rights
Even though human rights allow for detention, it has to be executed lawfully and non-arbitrarily. This means that the grounds for your detention must be prescribed by law, the authorities must follow clearly set procedures and they must treat you humanely. During the detention process, human rights such 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 the grounds on which you may be detained and how, in order for the detention to be lawful, the basic rights that you have during detention, where you will stay and how you must be treated. It will also explain how you can complain about issues related to your detention.