25 | PROTECTING STATELESS PERSONS FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION IN BULGARIA The number of detained children is striking. The Law on Foreign Nationals in the Republic of Bulgaria prohibits the detention of unaccompanied children.111 The law allows the detention of ‘accompanied’ children ‘by exception’ for a period of up to three months.112 However, in practice, unaccompanied children are detained as ‘attached’ to a random, unrelated adult who was in the same group of irregular migrants. This unlawful practice has been documented over the years113 and has been flagged in the latest Report of the Ombudsman of the Republic of Bulgaria as a National Preventive Mechanism under the OP-CAT Convention.114 On her visits to the detention centres, the Ombudsman found: […] several cases of minors, listed in the [removal and detention] orders of adults, without the persons in question knowing each other and without any family connection whatsoever between them. In this manner, the children are formally listed as accompanied and the ban of the detention of unaccompanied minors is avoided. In reality, however, they are unaccompanied minors, who should have been identified as such and who must immediately receive help and support as members a particularly vulnerable group.”115 The Ombudsman also noted that she “cannot remain indifferent” to the detention of families with children. She reiterated that the detention centres are unsuitable for children as they lack the appropriate conditions and trained personnel.116 Detention of ill persons in Bulgaria also contradicts human rights standards. I CAN’T BREATHE” This is what Mr. T., a torture survivor in his country of origin that deprived him of his citizenship, told the judge during his court hearing on 27 June 2016. The court case concerned the request by the detaining authority to prolong Mr. T.’s detention by six more months.117 Mr. T. has been in immigration detention since 27 May 2015, for almost sixteen months at the time of writing the report. He suffers inter alia from a chronic bronchial asthma, which has deteriorated significantly because of the detention conditions in which he finds himself. In the interview with Mr. T on 20 April 2016, he complained of lack of a possibility to open the small window with bars in his room, which resulted in no access to fresh air. At the beginning of his detention he was placed in the medical unit of the detention centre, where he had access to an open window. However, later on he was in a separate building of the Bousmantsi detention facilities (called ‘block 3’), where persons who are regarded as a threat to national security are placed. Because of his chronic bronchial asthma, Mr. T. uses an inhalator twice a day. He also suffers from high blood pressure, heart problems and sleep epilepsy. In October 2015 the psychiatrist at the hospital of the Ministry of the Interior diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder and recommended his sedation for better sleep. “[In the detention centre] my health is in danger. … Without a[n open] window one cannot breathe without medicine. There was an instruction by the previous court that I be moved to the medical unit. I have not been moved to the medical unit. They do not provide medicine for asthma. I cannot breathe”, Mr. T. told the judge on 27 June 2016. 'The previous court’ that Mr. T. refers to decided on the prolongation of his detention by six more months from 27 November 2015 until 27 May 2016. In that case the SCAC noted that according to the medical expert report heard in the case, "the sanitary conditions in which currently the person is accommodated are incompatible with his health - there is a real risk of worsening of his diseases, and in the near future this might lead to respiratory and cardiac failure". However, the judge pointed out that it is not the very detention that was “unfavourable” for the health of the detainee, but the conditions in the room where he was placed. Therefore, the judge allowed the extension of the period of detention of Mr. T. In spite of the observations in the reasoning of the ruling of the SCAC that Mr. T. would feel better in the medical unit of the detention centre, situated in another building of the facility, the judge did not expressly make any recommendation or instructions for Mr. T. to be transferred there. Therefore, Mr. T. continued to be detained in block 3. In the interview with him, he reiterated: “I am suffocating and I cannot open the window. They want to make me a terrorist. At least to know that I have done something and that is why I am punished.” As seen in the official statistical records and in the case of Mr. T., there is no identification and specialised care for detainees who are torture survivors. These findings are confirmed by a recent report on detention of torture survivors in Bulgaria and Hungary, From Torture to Detention.118 The report concludes that “in the absence of regular, state-funded psychological counselling and regular mental healthcare, the tension deriving from the closed circumstances, lack of information and forced close contact of persons from different national, cultural and social backgrounds”, the psychological condition of detainees is deteriorating. 3.6 CONDITIONS OF DETENTION Conditions of detention are common to stateless and non-stateless persons alike. However, as stateless persons are more likely to be detained for longer periods, they have to endure poor conditions of detention for longer as well. No improvement in the conditions in Bulgarian immigration detention centres has been documented over the years.119 For example, one of the persisting problems to date, which detainees find most