Country: Bulgaria

Group: Roma

Date Finalized: 2/13/2022

Team: Laura Haas (lead), Nichole Dahlen

Content Warning: sexual assault, sexual violence against children, police brutality, sex slavery, victim-blaming

Approximate Time Period: 1940’s-present

The Roma people of Bulgaria primarily live in segregated slums established by the ethnic Bulgarian majority of the country for the Roma people. Roma people make up approximately 4.4% of the Bulgarian population (Central Intelligence Agency, 2021). Discrimination against the Roma is so deeply entrenched in Bulgarian society that Roma are among Bulgaria’s poorest, least educated, and most unemployed people. Recent census figures state that approximately 92% of Roma are legally unemployed, and 80% are considered illiterate due to lack of education (Mojzes, 2015).

            During WWII, Bulgaria allied with the Axis powers, notably the Nazis. Bulgarians allowed the Nazis to segregate the Roma into internment camps inside Bulgaria, where they were subjected to sexual assault, lethal violence, and forced labor (Minority Rights Group, 2021). Beginning in the 1990’s, ethnic Bulgarians have forced Roma women and children into prostitution and human trafficking under the guise of “visa expedition” to help Roma women get jobs. Some estimates indicate that 50-80% of Bulgarians trafficked for sexual exploitation are Roma (D’Arcy & Brodie, 2015). There are many reported instances of ethnic Bulgarians forcing girls as young as 14 into arranged marriages, which isn’t considered a crime if the parents approve. However, even when Roma parents disapprove of the arrangements, little action is taken by the police and court systems due to the deeply entrenched systemic discrimination against the Roma people. In 1997, Bulgaria’s Chief Prosecutor found that the police frequently harassed, abused, and raped Roma sex workers, including children (Vassilev, 2004). Between 1999 and 2007, Bulgarian authorities passed multiple laws and measures to counteract ethnic inequality and discrimination toward the Roma people. Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union motivated these measures. In 2007, the U.S. 2020 Trafficking in Persons report suggested that while progress has been made, more needs to be done (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Minority Rights Group, 2021; U.S. Department of State, 2020).

Data Quality: Data quality for Roma sexual assault is rated at 3/3. While there are numerous reliable sources concerning the subject matter, there are concerns about the lack of consistency in current sex trafficking numbers. There are multiple peer-reviewed sources lending validity to the subject content. Increased data reporting and globalization of media sources have made victims’ stories more available.

Sources

  1. Central Intelligence Agency. (2021, October). Bulgaria. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bulgaria/
  2. D’Arcy, K., & Brodie, I. (2015). Roma children and young people in Bulgaria: Patterns of risk and effective protection in relation to child sexual exploitation. Social Inclusion, 3(4), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v3i4.224
  3. Mojzes, P. (2015). Balkan genocides: Holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the Twentieth Century. Rowman & Littlefield. Retrieved 2022, from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-ebooks/reader.action?docID=914978.
  4. Minority Rights Group. (2021, February 5). Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://minorityrights.org/minorities/roma-2/
  5. U.S. Department of State. (2020, December 1). Bulgaria – united states department of state. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://2017-2021.state.gov/reports/2020-trafficking-in-persons-report/bulgaria/index.html
  6. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (n.d.). Bulgaria: Violence against Roma, including by Extremist Groups; state protection and treatment by police (2008-2012). Refworld. Retrieved February 7, 2022, from https://www.refworld.org/docid/50a9ed2f2.html
  7. Vassilev, R. (2004). The Roma of Bulgaria: A pariah minority. Global Review of Ethnopolitics, 3(2), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/14718800408405164