The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, published today her letter to the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Minister of Interior of Bulgaria, in which she expresses concern about recent media reports regarding pushbacks at Bulgaria’s land borders.
The Commissioner requests information on the investigations launched by the Bulgarian authorities into allegations of unlawful detention and ill-treatment of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, and of situations which have led to the death or injury of some of those trying to cross the border into Bulgaria.
Referring to her Recommendation on urgent action to end pushbacks and the human rights violations that they entail, the Commissioner calls on the Bulgarian authorities to safeguard the right to life of asylum seekers and migrants, protect them from ill-treatment, and ensure that they are not being forced back across borders without an individual assessment of their human rights protection needs.