The United Nations High Commission for Refugees fears that Bulgaria, which until a few months ago was regarded as a safe haven for Iraqi refugees, has changed its policy to get tougher towards such refugees.
 
A story posted on the UNHCR website on April 21 said that Bulgaria used to grant either humanitarian status or full refugee status to almost every Iraqi who asked for asylum after arriving in the country, usually overland from Turkey. That meant 533 people last year, about half the number of asylum seekers registered in Bulgaria in 2007, the story said.
 
But Bulgarian immigration officials rejected 41 Iraqi asylum applications between last December and March this year, according to Iliana Savova of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, an independent human rights organisation. During the same period, the government granted refugee status to two asylum seekers and humanitarian status to 60.
 
"The government insists it has simply become more rigorous in assessing applications and making status determination rulings. 'We are looking more realistically at cases and we have refused a number of asylum claims,' the item quotes Todor Zhivkov, director of the Registration-Reception Centre for Refugees in Sofia, as saying.
 
These cases are currently under appeal. The Helsinki Committee is seeking judicial review of the decisions made in the cases of 22 of the Iraqis whom it is representing.
 
"The UNHCR is worried at the apparent change of policy, which the agency believes is not justified by any change of profile of the new arrivals."
 
Most Iraqi asylum seekers continue to be single men, but a growing number of families and single mothers with children are also looking for protection in Bulgaria.
 
Before the first asylum rejections were issued in December 2007, Bulgarian immigration authorities expressed their concern that the growing number of Iraqis seeking asylum was putting pressure on Bulgaria's limited accommodation capacity.
 
UNHCR Representative in Bulgaria Catherine Hamon Sharpe argued that capacity problems must be resolved differently. "The individual's need for protection is the only legitimate reason for granting or denying refugee status," she was quoted as saying.
 
Hamon Sharpe said that the number of Iraqis seeking asylum in Bulgaria last year - 533 - was low compared to neighbouring Greece (5500) and Turkey (3500). She said that the Bulgarian State Agency for Refugees had in 2002-2003, for example, accommodated much larger numbers of asylum seekers, some in reception centres and some in private quarters.

The original item can be found at: http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/480cb0ca4.html
 
In 2002, Bulgaria received a total 2888 asylum applications - the largest annual number in its history - followed by 1549 in 2003. Most of the applicants were from Afghanistan.
 
The UNHCR item said that Iraqis in Sofia were becoming "more and more concerned" about their chances of remaining in the country. "In some cases, the uncertainty is affecting their health."