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Konstantin Penchev, Bulgaria's Ombudsman, has stated that the ban that prohibits debtors to leave the country is anti-constitutional. Photo by BGNES
Bulgaria's Ombudsman Konstantin Penchev has asked the Constitutional Court to drop the ban that prohibits people to leave the country if they have a debt.
This is Penchev's first demand for canceling anti-constitutional orders since he took the position as Bulgaria's Ombudsman in October 2010.
According to the Bulgarian Identification Documents Act, if people have debts of over BGN 5000, the Interior Ministry forbids them to leave the country at the request of the bailiff.
The obligation could be to the state, such as unpaid taxes, or to a citizen or a company.
According to Penchev, this practice is anti-constitutional. His statement is based on the main text of the constitution, which says that "every person has the right to choose his/her residence, to move in the country's territory and to leave the country"
The Bulgarian constitution stated that the right to free movement could be restricted only through a law or 'for protection of the national security, national health and rights and freedoms of other citizens".
In its demand to the Bulgarian Constitutional Court, Penchev stated that security, health and freedom are of extremely important social interest, while the rights of creditors do not have a higher value and should not be more important than the right to free movement.
"I do not argue the importance of collecting debts. Paying taxes and fees is a constitutional obligation of citizens. The state may impose restrictions in order to collect its claims, but in order for these restrictions for be justified as protecting the citizens' constitutional rights, they should affect the citizens in a material manner," the ombudsman said.
He added that restricting people's right to free movement would not guarantee that the debts will be paid.
So far, Bulgarian courts have dropped the restrictions only for movement within the European Union. However, it turned out that interior ministry officials could not follow the court's rule because they could not specify in the system that people are allowed to travel only within the EU.
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