INTEGRA project was successfully completed at the end of 2019, but its great work continues to give results even today. A meeting of the lead partner of INTEGRA project - Sofia Development Association with the local authorities led in January 2020 was one of the continuations of the project for better integration of TCNs in Bulgaria. This month news about the meeting were published on the first page in the newsletter of Bulgarian Council on Refugees and Migrants (BCRM) and UNHCR Bulgaria for January-March 2020.

During the meeting certain were discussed certain actions that must be taken in order to develop a Municipal center for information and integration of third-country nationals, including refugees in Sofia Municipality. The focus of the discussion was on the vision of the center, the type of services it will provide, as well as the coordination between the different organizations. An important feature of the Center is that, in addition to third-country nationals, the center will be open to Bulgarian citizens, institutions and organizations with an interest in the topic of migration and asylum.

The discussion is also a key-element and a stepping-stone for the implementation of the future projects #CONNECTION (CONNEcting Cities Towards Integration action) and UMN (UnionMigrantNet and Cities Together for Integration) in which Sofia Development Association is a partner. Both projects are financed the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

You may find the newsletter in Bulgarian here: https://bcrm-bg.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/2020_Бюлетин_01-1.pdf