The Special Representative of the Secretary General on Migration and Refugees (SRSG), Ambassador Tomáš Boček, is conducting a fact-finding mission to Bulgaria from 13 to 17 November 2017.

The Special Representative will visit various reception centres for migrants and refugees around Sofia as well as in the south-central part of the country close to the border with Turkey. He will have meetings with Bulgarian government officials, the Ombudsman, the Commission for Protection against Discrimination, the State Agency for Refugees and the State Agency for Child Protection. In addition, he will meet with relevant international organisations as well as NGOs.

Bulgaria has been primarily a country of transit for migrants and refugees arriving in Europe in the last three years. The Bulgarian legal framework on asylum and foreigners has undergone substantive changes at the end of 2015 and 2016. Currently, some 1670 asylum-seekers and migrants live in open and closed reception centres in Bulgaria.

The aim of Ambassador Boček’s fact-finding mission is to gather information on the situation of migrants and refugees and to elaborate proposals for concrete Council of Europe action on how to assist Bulgaria in this connection. The protection of the most vulnerable groups, in particular unaccompanied children, is one of the Special Representative’s priorities.

Following his visit to Bulgaria, the Special Representative will publish a report setting out his conclusions and recommendations.

On 19 October 2017, the Special Representative published a report on the situation of migrants and refugees in Serbia and two transit zones in Hungary. He is currently coordinating, together with different other Council of Europe entities, the implementation of the Council of Europe Action Plan on Protecting Refugee and Migrant Children in Europe for 2017-2019 which was adopted by the 47 member states on 19 May 2017.