site.btaThird-Country Seasonal Workers Use Bulgaria for Transit to Central, Western Europe

Bulgaria's National Assembly Tourism Committee on Thursday held a hearing on persistent and current problems arising from the issuing of work permits to third-country seasonal workers.

A total of 8,282 applications for a single work permit were submitted between January 1 and August 7, 2024. Of these applicants, 4,049 were granted a right to stay. Out of the 3,901 applicants for seasonal employment submitted, 1,819 actually arrived in Bulgaria, Vladislava Radonova of the Interior Ministry's Migration Directorate said during the hearing.  

She added that 694 applications were submitted for a Blue Card, and 561 persons were granted a right to stay in Bulgaria. During the same period, proceedings on 409 applications were terminated, employers terminated 888 employment contracts, and 308 applicants were denied a right of stay. Some 700 orders withdrawing the right to stay by reason of termination of the employment relationships by employers are being proceeded at this point.

"We have a real problem: people are granted a right to work here, but they don't work and use our country as a transit route," Tourism Committee Chair Tsoncho Ganev MP of Vazrazhdane commented.

The Director of the Migration Directorate, Senior Commissioner Nikolay Nikolov, pointed out that the number of permits issued mismatches the Type D visa issuing capacity of Bulgaria's consulates because the applicants are nationals of countries where Bulgaria does not have an embassy or the embassy represents several states and there is a single consular officer posted there. "Then, the next risk is that part of them do not at all intend to come to Bulgaria," Nikolov said.

He specified that some of them land in Germany and stay there instead of continuing their journey to Bulgaria, or if they do arrive, they leave on the next day. The Senior Commissioner noted that between 30 and 40% of the applications submitted are either terminated or refused because the foreigners do not turn up. Nikolov said that illegal emigration can be legitimized in this way. Another problem is that if such a foreigner is unwilling to leave this country, Bulgaria cannot return them to the country of origin.

Senior Commissioner Radoslav Kulekov, Deputy Director of the General Directorate Border Police and Director of the Border Control Directorate, added for his part that foreigners holding an employment visa are starting to use Bulgaria for transit to Central and Western Europe. He pointed out that more than 70 third-country nationals, mainly from Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, have been detected over the last two months as trying to leave Bulgaria illegally and settle in other EU Member States.