DEAR MR. LIM,

In reference to your letter from 7^th May 2013 received on the e-mail of Chief Directorate “Border Police”, where you notify us that during a border check on 29^th April 2013 on BCP Russe – Dunav Most (Bridge), while leaving the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria as a passenger traveling by bus, a border police officer took your passport for a 20-minutes check which compared to the other passengers was more thorough, please be aware of the following:

The border checks on Bulgarian border crossing points (BCPs) are conducted in accordance with the EU Regulation 562/2006 of the European Parliament and the Council (15^th March 2006) for establishment of the Schengen Borders Code. According to the Agreement between the government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the government of Romania on joint control while passing the border, the checks of persons and vehicles on BCP Russe – Dunav Most are conducted in one-stop on the territory of Romania. There is a consecutive check – first by the officers of the exit-country and then by those of the entry-country.

A thorough examination of your signal was ordered and performed in order to clarify the facts and the circumstances as well as the conformity with the law of the Bulgarian border police while conducting the border check. Additional information activity in the system of the Ministry of Interior was also performed during examination process. The border police officer who performed the check was established and his evidence was taken.

During the border check of the passengers traveling by bus 8A11933 the border police officer identified the persons on the bus. All the passengers presented ID cards except the British passport presented by you. During the identification there was doubt of your identity as bearer of the document with passport photo because of the difference in time when it was integrated in the passport and the time of the border check on the BCP.

Upon the Article 7, point 2 of the EU Regulation 562/2006 a technical equipment control is performed to all documents presented by the passengers (IDs and Passports) with the purpose to see if there are signs of counterfeiting or forgery. In the framework of this check the Bulgarian border police officer took the decision to make an interview and this is why you were invited outside of the bus. After the interview, the border police officer denied the possibility for illegal use of the British passport presented by you. The travel documents of the passengers were given to Romanian officers who also needed some technological time to perform the check.

Take in mind that the thorough checks of IDs and interviews with the citizens of the European Union are not an exception and they are performed in any case when there is need to decline the possibility of falsified, forged misappropriated or illegal documents.

As it concerned the specific questions, we inform you the following:

1. Actually, to travel across borders, the citizens of the European Union must have valid passport or ID. The Bulgarian Border police officer had asked you if you had Turkish ID card in order to determine if you had another valid document with your photo in order to facilitate the identification, which he is obliged to accomplish, according the above mentioned article from the Schengen Borders Code.

2. The British passport is sufficient to travel across Bulgarian – Romanian Border, but as I have mentioned above the Border police officer is obliged to make himself sure in conformity of the person – bearer of the document and the image from the picture, which takes longer time and more activities due to the 10 years passport.

3. In reply to your third question, I again would like to underline that the Border police officer, had tried to receive another document with your picture, suggesting that you have Turkish one.

4. The Border police officer had used Turkish language supposing that you speak it and taking into account the fact that he does not speak English language. The officer according to the official documents has performed French Language Course. The language skills in Turkish language are perfunctory, he thought were enough to clarify the circumstances. The Border police officer could not formulate the mentioned in your letter phrases in Turkish.

I would like to inform you that the English language is one of the 23 official languages of the EU, not the “official language of the European Union”.

5. The statement that you were discriminated in comparison to Bulgarian citizens is not in accordance with the data that we had. The documents of the Bulgarian citizens, traveling by the bus had been checked in analogical way, but as they are well known to the Bulgarian border police officers, their check, using technical equipment takes shorter time.

6. Your information that the border checks on the Bulgarian – Romanian border had been removed in May 2010 is not true. Both countries are still candidate-members for joining to Schengen area and border checks on their common border are performed under the conditions of article 17 from the above mentioned Schengen Borders Code.

In conclusion I would like to inform you that the Bulgarian Border police implement several measures for improving the qualification of the border police officers and the received information in your letter would be valuable to concentrate the efforts in language training and the knowledge of rare coming into travel documents on the Bulgarian – Romanian border.

 

Director:
Chief Commissioner
Zaharin Penov