In 2020 Foundation for Access to Rights - FAR has launched a project "Roma at risk of statelessness", which is conducted with the financial support of the European Network on Statelessness. The aim of the project is to examine the legal issues concerning the situation of Roma who are at risk of statelessness in Bulgaria or are severely restricted in having access to the rights deriving from their citizenship.
As part of the implementation of this project, FAR researches and presents specific stories of people from the Roma community, which reveal significant common problems regarding the accessibility of these people to identity documents, address registration and human rights in general.
One of these stories is the one of Borislav Filipov (known as Borkata) from the town of Peshtera and his battle with the administration to make an address registration at the address where he has lived for most of his 80-year life. The charisma, the warmth and the vivacity in Borkata's eyes fascinate everyone from the first moment they meet him. Here is his story:
From the general picture to the particular case
An identity document is issued after an address registration is made. However, things are not so easy for some of the residents of the two neighbourhoods "Pirin" and "Lukovitsa" in the town of Peshtera, which are inhabited by 8,000 people. There should be equality between the citizens of Roma origin and the citizens of the Bulgarian majority. Both in the villages and in the cities the Roma people live at a distance from the other neighbourhoods, which hinders the integration of the Roma population. The increase in this separation is both a result of the intensification of the processes of social exclusion of the Roma and a factor for its deepening. Since the 19th century, there has been a tendency for the Roma to be relocated to the periphery of the settlements. After 1989 the growth of the isolated neighbourhoods has been significantly increasing. The restructuring of the economy has led to the Roma being among the first to drop out of the labour force and many of them who had previously lived in housing estates, due to lack of income, left their homes and returned to the isolated neighbourhoods. In 1980 49% of the Roma lived segregated compared to three quarters in the first decade of the 21st century. Over the last 20 years, the situation in the isolated neighbourhoods has been constantly deteriorating and is characterized by poor infrastructure and lack of development plans, as well as lack of opportunities for legal construction.
The particular case that shows a systemic problem
What makes the case from the town of Peshtera so specific is that the names and numbers of the streets have been changed in the cadastre over the years and some of them remain out of regulation. Borislav Filipov lives in a house on №19 “Out of regulation” Street, but another address is written on his indefinite ID card. During his active working years, he worked as a dancer and choreographer of a children's ensemble at Lyuben Karavelov Primary School. His innate artistry and musicality, intrinsic to the Roma community, made him extremely popular and he had an enviable career. Despite his advanced age /over 84/, he has a clear mind and is no different from any other Bulgarian pensioner, except for the fact that he cannot apply for any social benefits under the Social Assistance Act. These administrative obstacles to access to rights are solely due to the fact that there is a discrepancy between his permanent address, where he has lived for more than 50 years and the address which appears in his personal documents.
Borislav Filipov's case is not the only one. This provoked us to submit a request to the mayor of Peshtera Municipality to form a commission which can establish his address. The Civil Registration Act provides for such a possibility when people cannot present documents for ownership or use of the dwelling in which they actually live. This is the only solution for the residents of these streets because after the expiration of their ID cards they cannot change their address registration according to the legal procedure, which immediately leads to many administrative barriers to access to rights, such as receiving social benefits under the Social Security Act. On the one hand, the law obliges every citizen of the Republic of Bulgaria to have identity documents, and on the other hand, administrative irregularities prevent it. Over 60 households in the town of Peshtera live out of regulation. This puts almost 50% of the people in a situation where they register that they live with relatives and not at their own addresses so that they can be issued ID cards. The municipality is interested in knowing where the citizens live and therefore it is paradoxical that there is no permanent solution to the problem. It would be right for every municipality in which such a problem exists to initiate a commission, which should include representatives of the social services, the police and Civil Registration and Administrative Services (CRAS), and not look for an incidental solution for each case. In recent decades, the administration at both central and local levels has not had an active policy to address the problem of bringing Roma neighbourhoods in line with urban planning standards. There are not enough adequate practical policies to meet the goals for improving the housing situation of the Roma, set in the National Roma Integration Strategy of the Republic of Bulgaria (NRISRB). This is mainly due to the lack of clear responsibilities and indicators of success on the set goals regarding the necessary legislative changes, as well as the insufficient funding and support of the capacity of municipalities to develop and implement adequate measures and investments for an integrated approach to the housing problems of the Roma population.
After submitting a request to the Municipality of Peshtera, Borislav was eventually assisted. Now he enjoys his new ID card, which finally reflects his actual address, where he has lived for more than 50 years. But there are still many people in Borislav's situation whose problem remains unresolved.
For more information, read FAR’s “Advocacy Report on the Risk of Statelessness of the Roma Population”.
In this case, the lawyers from the Foundation for Access to Rights - FAR provided free legal aid under the Civil Registration Act and the Administrative Procedure Code.