Contributed by: Liliya Sazonova, Bulgaria National VAW Monitor

Four government departments and agencies concluded an agreement establishing a coordinating mechanism to handle cases of unaccompanied children and child victims of violence returning from abroad on 9 November 2005.

The agreement was signed by the President of the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP), Shirin Mestan, Deputy Interior Minister Boiko Kotsev, Deputy Labour and Social Policy Minister Goran Bankov, and Social Assistance Agency Deputy Executive Director Silvia Tsanova. The instrument is also to be signed by a Foreign Ministry representative.

Since 2003, sixty Bulgarian children have been reported to the SACP as living abroad unaccompanied. Thirty of them have been returned to this country and received due protection. Such children are most often found in Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Greece.

The agreement defines the institutions' responsibilities concerning the fight against trafficking in children. The Interior Ministry is required to provide social workers with information on the identity of child victims of trafficking and on their parents and family environment.

Kotsev said revisions to the Bulgarian Identity Documents Act address problems of some vulnerable social groups, including the practice of parents transferring rights over their children to third persons by a notarized letter of authority. In such cases, Bulgarian children often become victims of sexual or other exploitation abroad or become involved in pickpocketing, theft or begging, Kotsev said.

He recalled that under the revisions, a child's international travel documents may be suspended at the SACP's recommendation upon a report by the competent authorities of a foreign country.  

Compiled from: Bulgarian News Agency (BTA)