| The Hungarian Helsinki Committee (HHC) carries out a number of legal programmes. Since 1998 the HHC has been a UNHCR implementing partner for co-ordinating a countrywide lawyers network for asylum seekers and refugees. It has been part of the cross-border co-operation activities since 2002, after having participated in the Sirava meeting.
Border monitoring and cross-border co-operation activities were included in the HHC’s legal counselling project carried out during the course of 2004. Late 2003, the HHC initiated negotiations with the National Border Guard Headquarters in order to extend the scope of their co-operation agreement to future border monitoring activities. In January 2004, jointly with UNHCR and Border Guards the HHC carried out a needs assessment mission to selected border points at the border with Serbia, Romania and Ukraine and a mission to the Slovak-Ukrainian border together with the Slovak NGO “Society of Goodwill".
The border monitoring part of the legal counselling project included the following activities: (i) missions to border points to monitor conditions of accommodation centres for aliens; (ii) regular visits to border points to provide legal counselling to aliens subject to readmission or return and to represent them in the asylum, detention and expulsion procedures if requested.
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