5 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN BULGARIA INTRODUCING THE INTERVIEWEES Mr. A. is a stateless person from the former Mr. H. has lived in Bulgaria for the past 24 years. He was born in Banja Luka, Yugoslavia (present day Bosnia and Herzegovina). He has never had an identity document: “I have had only a birth certificate. I have never had any other paper in my life”, he recalls. Mr. H. entered Bulgaria in 1992 after his wife and two young children were killed in the Bosnian war. He found work and friends in a small Bulgarian village. Upon his encounters with Bulgarian authorities, Mr. H. was subjected to multiple detentions of several days, but was always subsequently released. In 2015 a removal order was issued against him and he spent four months at the Bousmantsi immigration detention centre. Mr. H. refers to the four months of his immigration detention as “the most humiliating punishment” that he has suffered in his life. Mr V., aged nineteen, was one-year old when he entered Bulgaria with his parents and has lived in the country ever since. He graduated from secondary school in Bulgaria, but could not obtain a diploma for his school education, because he does not have any identity documents. “I have a problem with the citizenship. Over the last ten years it is as though I live illegally”, he shared. Mr. V. was born in Armenia. He has a certificate from the Armenian embassy in Bulgaria certifying that he has not been issued an Armenian passport and that he does not have a registered address in Armenia. He asks: “Why - although I have studied for twelve years in a Bulgarian school and have lived in Bulgaria for eighteen years - can’t I obtain Bulgarian citizenship?” In similar situation we find Mr. D., who is 21 years old. He was a six-month old baby when he entered Bulgaria with his parents and has lived in the country ever since. He has graduated from secondary school in Bulgaria and currently studies law at a private university. He managed to receive a secondary education diploma thanks to the temporary registration card that he had as an asylum seeker (after that his asylum claim was rejected). He has no access to basic human rights and finds it a constant struggle to live a normal life. Soviet Union who was held in immigration detention in Bulgaria from 2005 to 2012. During the years of his immigration detention, he was told he would be deported, but was never provided with details about the actions taken towards his deportation. Mr. A remained in detention throughout this period because the only alternative to detention envisaged in Bulgarian law, daily reporting at the police station, could not be imposed on him as he had never had a registered address or acquaintances in Bulgaria. After almost seven years in detention and following the intervention of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe, Mr. A was released at the end of 2012. He now lives in Bulgaria as an undocumented migrant. “Why did they hold me for seven years and gave me nothing?” – Mr. A. asked during his interview.