This text was created with the financial support of the EU’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF). The International Organization for Migration is solely responsible for the content of the document, and under no circumstances can be assumed that this document reflects the official position of the European Union and the Responsible authority.

On the 21st November 2020, the Information Center for Migrants in Burgas organized an info session and a group consultation for legally staying migrants in Burgas and the region.

The main focus of the presentation was the family and family related issues and questions - status, legal frame of family relationships, divorce and mediation as an alternative method for solving disputes.

An IOM lawyer and legal counselor in the project held a presentation on “Bulgarian modern family status”. The attendees were informed about the Family code – a legal document regulating and defining family relationships based on marriage, kinship, adoption, guardianship. Details on the requirements to get married in Bulgaria were also presented.

In the second module of the info session, a judge in the Regional Court in Burgas, in cooperation with the court’s mediator team held a presentation on “The Mediation - an alternative method to solve disputes”. They explained to the attendees the mediation’s aim - to improve the relationships between the arguing parties, ending the dispute voluntarily by signing an agreement and in result ending the lawsuit.

The last part of this eventful day was saved for the mutual celebration of the Day of the Christian Family. A wide range of cultural activities and delicious catering individually packed for each of the attendees helped migrants share with their Bulgarian hosts the celebration of one of the most loved and celebrated holidays in the Bulgarian cultural calendar.

An expert from Department “Ethnography” with the Regional Museum of History in Burgas provided interesting information on weddings from the Burgas region from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century - traditions, habits, costumes and rituals, providing archive photographic material showing wedding ceremonies in the villages of Draka, Zidarovo and Kozarovo as well as reproductions of some of the greatest Bulgarian artists from that time - Ivan Mǎrkvichka’s “Wedding in Momchilovtsi”, “Bulgarian family” by Vladimir Dimitrov – Master and Bozhidar Chantarski’s “ The guardian of the traditions” were presented. The impact of the visual art was emphasized by the performance of the professional folklore ensemble “Strandzha”. The beauty and uniqueness of the Bulgarian traditional songs and dances presented by Ensemble “Strandzha” touched all the attendees.

The info session was realized in the framework of project "Training and Counselling of Legal Migrants, Asylum Seekers and Beneficiaries of International Protection" funded by the National Program of Bulgaria under the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund 2014-2020.