Bulgaria — Legal Help

Dial 112. If detained you have EU-law rights to an interpreter and a lawyer before questioning — insist on both, and ask police to notify your embassy, which can provide English-speaking lawyer lists and monitor treatment but cannot intervene in the case. Petty corruption has declined but has not vanished; never offer money to an officer, which is itself a crime. Get any misdemeanour fine documented in writing.

Because adult sex work is unregulated rather than licensed, clients are not prosecuted for the transaction itself, but raids on premises target organisers under Article 155 of the Penal Code and anyone present can be held as a witness. Anything involving a person under 18 or a trafficking victim exposes the client to felony charges.