By Simeon Danchev
After Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Air Zone – which makes it possible to take one’s children out of their homeland without the consent of the other guardian – six children went missing. The labour situation is another facet where Schengen did not bring any good: labour shortages persist and Bulgaria has to attract foreigners to keep things going. Logistical challenges are also prevalent.
It is a cause for concern that six children have recently been removed from Bulgaria without the knowledge or consent of one of the parents, just one month after the country’s accession to the Schengen Air Zone. The discovery was made by Dobromira Polimenova, a family lawyer in an interview with Nova TV. Under the new rules of the Air Schengen Convention, a parent can remove a child from the country without a declaration from the other parent, and without being certified by a notary.
Parental Rights vs Free Flow of People
This loophole raised serious concerns about parental rights and children’s safety. Polimenova pointed out that in response to these incidents, proceedings were opened for the return of children to Bulgaria. However, the issue remained unresolved, despite the fact that a working group on the matter had been set up. According to the lawyer, while no border controls are being carried out when children are taken out of the Schengen area, the Bulgarian authorities had to carry out checks. However, this subjective approach does not guarantee the protection of parental rights and does not prevent the child from being abducted.
The incident highlights the need for more stringent regulation and better enforcement mechanisms to protect parental rights and ensure the welfare of children in cross-border situations.
Labour Shortages: A Clear and Present Problem
Bulgaria is experiencing an exceptional labor shortage during the summer season. According to analysts, as the summer approaches, Bulgaria’s coastal tourism sector faces a daunting challenge, as hotels can continue to be closed due to a severe shortage of labor. The fact is that workers are reluctant to accept low wages, aggravated by the delay in visa procedures for seasonal workers from third countries. In response to the forthcoming crisis, the lawyers of the migration centers and employers are considering legal action against the State, citing backlog allowances and criticizing the sluggish visa processing regime. The tourism sector, which is heavily reliant on seasonal workers, is missing out on the effects of these delays.
Despite recent amendments to the Foreign Affairs Act, hotel and restaurant owners are skeptical that they will be able to save the summer season. The tourism minister, Evtim Milosev, has reacted quickly to the crisis, but industry actors remain concerned. Employers, especially in the southern Black Sea, encountered considerable obstacles in obtaining visas for 6000 Uzbek workers. Months of delays are reported, and bureaucratic inefficiencies hamper the timely processing of applications.
An Impending Logistical Crisis
According to Plamen Dotov, the legal adviser to the migration center in Burgas, the changeover to the Schengen visa regime has exacerbated the situation, made businesses unstable and brought no relief. The tourism minister, Evtim Milosev, has tried to reassure the public that they are working to resolve the problem. In the midst of uncertainty, the possibility of collective legal action threatens, while employers and migration centers are considering seeking compensation for lost benefits.
Europe is facing an unprecedented logistical crisis in transport and the war in Ukraine has further complicated the situation: over the last two years, 166 000 truck drivers from Ukraine, Belarus and Russia have left the sector. This second case, which supports the above finding and which was the result of a survey carried out in collaboration with the Spanish daily newspaper El Confidencial, HotNews.ro, Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland), Denik Referendum (Czech Republic) and Mediapool (Bulgaria), under the European Pulse project.
The investigation of the Spanish newspaper starts at the Giurgiu-Ruse border point between Romania and Bulgaria, where the row of trucks stretches to highway 5. Four days after the partial accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Schengen area of free maritime movement, and on 31 March, Romanian and Bulgarian truck drivers who are detained on this route complain that nothing has changed.
Highway from Hell?
The 5 highway is so important because it highlights a very specific type of society, the truck drivers and their problems. According to the 2022 figures, more than 77% of freight transport by road and just 16% by rail, despite the EU’s attempt to find new, less polluting modes of transport and its devoting a great deal of money to the Member States’ development of their rail networks rather than road networks. In other words, the money was wasted, because it was not written in a series of applications that would have served green.
