On 11 July 2019, the Council of Europe’s anti-torture committee (CPT) published a new report on its visit to Bulgaria, together with the response of the Government. CPT praised certain improvements in the conditions and treatment of foreigners detained under aliens legislation in the establishments visited in December 2018, but called for urgent measures to improve the poor state of healthcare services and to facilitate effective communication of detainees within the establishments and with the outside world.
The delegation received no credible allegations of ill-treatment of detainees in the Border Police establishments or in the immigration detention facilities. However, the Committee recommended that all detained persons should be provided with feedback from border police officers on whether it was possible to notify a close relative or another person of the fact of their detention. It further recommended ensuring that the 12m² cells in the SAR Unit were not used to accommodate more than three detainees, offering more activities to the persons detained and reviewing food arrangements.
The provision of health care to detained foreign nationals at Busmantsi and Lyubimets Homes was characterised as “highly unsatisfactory”. Despite the 24/7 staff presence in both homes, the medical equipment was very scant, access to specialist care (dentists, gynaecologists, paediatricians) restricted, the range of free medication extremely limited, and some of it, including antibiotics, had expired long ago. The delegation was particularly concerned by the very poor access to psychiatric care, limited in fact to emergencies. The Committee called on the Bulgarian authorities to urgently provide both Homes with adequate equipment, ensure appropriate supplies of free-of-charge medication, provide qualified interpretation, improve medical screening upon arrival and level of psychological assistance, and ensure confidentiality and quality of medical consultations and documentation.
The Committee also stressed the persistent problem of communication between staff and detained foreign nationals, as well as of the detainees with the outside world. The system of legal aid run by the National Legal Aid Bureau should be extended to detained foreigners and the complaints procedures should also be reviewed, to enable detainees to send complaints in a confidential manner.