A/HRC/43/40/Add.1
were detained for spreading videos of child sexual exploitation online. At one of the
searched addresses, 30 per cent of video files found were reportedly of babies up to 3
months old and contained brutal scenes of child sexual exploitation.
56.
Regarding the sale of babies, the low risk of detection, the difficulty of prosecution
and mild sentences make it a profitable business for traffickers and others involved.
Prosecutors reportedly settle cases with traffickers who agree to plead guilty and in return
often receive suspended sentences of less than three years. Only three people are known to
be serving sentences for the sale of babies, according to the Ministry of Justice.
2.
Care, recovery and reintegration
57.
Data are lacking on support received by victims and programmes offering
psychological help for victims of sexual abuse are limited. Of 23 State-funded crisis
centres, 19 are for child victims of trafficking and underage offenders, with a total capacity
of 246 places. Children can stay for up to six months, and as of 2019, 140 children were
accommodated. Staff are often overburdened and manage many issues, including enrolment
in the education system, health care and psychological support and recovery. Community
support centres, totalling 141 in 2019 and run by NGOs or municipalities, also provide
social and psychological counselling for up to six months. However, not all centres are
equipped to work with cases of violence: they suffer from poor funding, inadequate staffing
and training and lack of monitoring services and follow-up on cases.
58.
Following her visit to the Podem residential centre, the Special Rapporteur observed
an unfavourable environment, tense atmosphere, limited psychological counselling and
inadequate activities for children. Some underage girls were too intimate with the male
personnel. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex children were placed in the
residential centre for so-called antisocial behaviour without any prior assessment as to their
protection needs. There were disturbing reports of children being at risk of sexual abuse and
exploitation outside the institution: the security surrounding the centre was virtually nonexistent and the Special Rapporteur was told that some children regularly left the institution
and got involved in sexual commercial exploitation. In the dissenting opinion to the
judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of D.L. v. Bulgaria, the judge
noted the underlying punitive or criminal character of the applicant’s detention and the
inadequacy of the network of closed educational institutions, including the Podem centre,
from the perspective of educational provision and the material conditions of life for
detainees. Since 2009, the State Agency for Child Protection and the Ombudsman have
repeatedly highlighted problems, including the unsuitability of educational programmes for
vulnerable children, the lack of individualized plans, the lack of contact with families, the
prevalence of violence and the insufficiently trained personnel.
59.
While the number of unaccompanied children arriving in Bulgaria decreased in 2017
and 2018, and progress has been made in addressing some gaps, challenges remain. There
is no system to provide specialized care and support to child victims of trafficking, who are
often placed in sociopedagogical boarding schools and correctional centres
(CRC/C/BGR/CO/3-5, para. 56). In early 2016, the National Commission for Combating
Trafficking in Human Beings launched five specialized services for victims of trafficking:
three shelters in Varna and Burgas and two consultation services. However, challenges
remain: there is a lack of adequate identification and referral procedures upon apprehension
at the border, reluctance from residential-type social services to accommodate
unaccompanied children, and no specialized interim care facility, which further impedes
timely and adequate identification and protection of children’s needs. Children are
incorrectly registered as accompanied or as adults and placed in detention, in contradiction
of the 2017 ban on detention. Almost all unaccompanied children are attached to unrelated
adults or representatives from the municipality, without any background checks or
supervision. Identification and referral is impeded owing to the absence of an ageassessment procedure. Practical implementation of various updated standard operating
procedures on identifying, responding to and preventing sexual and gender-based violence,
although adopted in 2018, is not monitored or assessed. Legal representation is offered by
NGOs on a pro bono basis, but their personnel is not necessarily trained to work on such
cases.
13
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