Two new holding centres open in Ukraine

16 February 2010

On 15 February 2010 two new facilities for temporary holding of apprehended illegal migrants were opened in Sumy region of Ukraine. The one built on the territory of border garrison of Seredina Buda has capacity of up to 14 migrants; the second one with the capacity of up to 6 migrants is located in Velyka Pysarivka.

The centres were constructed under the EU-funded project on capacity building and technical assistance “GDISC ERIT Ukraine”. The project foresees an overall investment of 260 thousand Euros for the establishment of five temporarily holding centres. The remaining three centres are to be opened in coming months in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Odesa.

“We focused our activities on the Eastern and South Eastern border of Ukraine where most illegal migrants enter the country”, explained Ms Marcela Entlichova, the Project Co-ordinator during the opening ceremony. According to her, a disproportion in investment at the Western and Eastern borders of Ukraine may lead to an unequal quality of border protection and serious consequences resulting in many illegal migrants staying on the territory of Ukraine.

All the centres are constructed from mobile modules, a solution suggested by the Ukrainian SBGS and based on Hungarian expert assessment report on the enhancement of the screening capacity in Ukraine. This solution is very flexible and time and cost effective. Moreover, in case of changes in migration flows in long term perspective this solution allows for possible removal of the centre to other locations in Ukraine.

At the same time the mobile modules ensure all necessary standards for temporary stay of migrants and they fully comfort to all relevant Ukrainian legislation. The centres offer separate rooms for men and women, a medical room and a room for interviewing the migrants. The centres thus provide migrants with living conditions that are fully comparable with EU standards. At the same time they offer proper working conditions for State Border Guard Service to deal with initial identification of migrants. “Our aim was not only to provide SBGS with space for detention but also to create respective conditions for SBGS to work with various categories of migrants such as unaccompanied minors, women or victims of human trafficking”, explains Ms Entlichova.

In addition to the technical support the project provided full set of trainings and seminars on issues related to apprehension and detention of illegal migrants, including specific treatment of vulnerable migrants. Moreover, representatives from the SBGS visited Hungary and the Czech Republic where they had unique opportunity to observe on the spot how best practices are followed in the EU, particularly in Hungary and Czech Republic.

For more information, please contact:

Mr Zdenek Belonoznik, GDISC ERIT Liaison Officer, ICMPD at zdenek.belonoznik@icmpd-ua.org

Ms Olena Noskova, Project Assistant, ICMPD at olena.noskova@icmpd-ua.org

or by phone +380 44 501 9496