UNHCR Representative in Bulgaria with 1st BBLF Certificate of Acknowledgement

As part of the commemorating events for the World Refugees Day and the departure from Bulgaria of UNHCR Resident in Bulgaria Ms. Louise Druke, she was granted the first ever Certificate of Achievement of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum - a symbol of acknowledgement of her work and efforts in creating a better and a safer environment in Bulgaria for refugees to develop themselves as full-right citizens of this country.

The Certificate was handed by BBLF Chairman Mr. Maxim Behar at a press-conference on the occasion of the issuing of UNHCR's annual report on the protection and integration of refugees in Bulgaria. 

"We have been working with UNHCR for some 3 years already, but our most active cooperation with them as well as with the State Agency for Refugees is yet to come. We are still at the beginning of the road," said Mr. Behar. "For her five years of work in Bulgaria Ms. Druke proved to be a person that business finds it comfortable to co-operate with. I truly hope her successor will also invest efforts in the fruitful coordination with business."

Mr Behar also stressed that Bulgarian companies can hardly do much to alleviate the problems of refugees, but what BBLF can do is assist those people in developing their potential so as to become fully competitive to our native employees. BBLF's task, as part of its co-operation with UNHCR and SAR, is to provide information to businesses about the skills and virtues that refugees possess, and convince them that refugees are not criminals, but regular people like all others who have been placed in a very difficult situation. "But the very fact that they are refugees means they are not lazy people, but rather ones who wish to develop themselves, but have found it impossible to do in their own countries for a variety of terrible reasons," Mr. Behar said.

The number of people who have sought asylum in Bulgaria has dropped by over 60% in 2005 as compared to 2004. Efforts in Bulgaria on behalf of UNHCR and SAR, as well as other governmental and non-governmental structures are not focused not on providing direct aide to refugees, but on creating sufficient stimuli for them to develop their own potential and potentially turning them into full-right tax-paying citizens in Bulgaria.

More information about UNHCR's work in Bulgaria is available at www.unhcr.bg