During its Human Rights meeting on 9-11 March, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers examined the execution of the C.G. and Others group of cases against Bulgaria. These cases concern shortcomings in the system of judicial review of expulsion on national security grounds and detention pending such expulsion; failure to examine rigorously claims of risk of death and ill-treatment in the destination country; and the lack of a remedy with automatic suspensive effect to prevent expulsion when arguable claims are made of such risks.
The Committee welcomed the adoption of amendments to the Aliens Act, which seem to address adequately several outstanding questions. First, the requirement that the destination country is indicated in a legally binding act which is amenable to judicial review. Second, the introduction of a rule according to which expulsion orders based on public order considerations are not put into effect before the alien has exercised his or her rights under Article 1 of Protocol No. 7. Finally, provisions on swift judicial review of detention pending expulsion were introduced.
The Committee also welcomed the adoption of an amendment providing for temporary automatic suspensive effect of appeals against expulsion orders based on national-security grounds, containing “substantiated allegations” of important risk of death or ill-treatment in the destination country, which may be prolonged by decision of the domestic courts. It underlined in this context the importance for the future administrative and judicial practice to guarantee solid decision-making procedures and invited the authorities to provide information on the implementation of the new rules by the end of December 2021.
The Committee furthermore again urged the authorities to introduce rapidly a system of open and closed judgments whereby, in cases where it is impossible to publish the complete judgment because of the risk to national security, the gist of the factual findings and reasoning is nonetheless made public.
News item in Bulgarian (unofficial translation)
Latest notes and decisions of the Committee of Ministers concerning these cases (Non official translation into Bulgarian)
