BHC Legal Aid Reception for Refugees and Migrants ceases operations

On the 30th anniversary of its opening in 1996, the legal aid reception of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee’s Programme for Legal Protection to Refugees and Migrants ceased its reception and operation on 1 January 2026, the website of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee announced. One of the reasons cited is the global crisis in the funding of international humanitarian agencies and their operations, including the activities of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whose financial support had enabled the work of the legal aid office for refugees and forcibly displaced persons.

Over the past three decades, legal assistance was provided to a total of 209 703 refugees, asylum seekers and forcibly displaced persons with legal representation and litigation carried out in 3 326 court cases.

Edited by Miglena Ivanova

Translated by Kostadin Atanasov