President of Ukraine enacts law accelerating forced expulsion of foreigners

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych endorsed Ukrainian Parliament’s amendments to the Code of Administrative Procedure concerning the characteristics of cases on expulsion of foreigners and stateless persons, the press service of the head of state reported in October, 2011.

The law aims at accelerating forced expulsion of foreigners and stateless persons by reducing the time of administrative proceedings on their detention and forced expulsion.

EU improves situation with irregular migrants in Ukraine

The European Union has allocated ˆ 30 million to enable the European Union – Ukraine Readmission Agreement to deal with illegal migrants, strengthen national migration policy, and to build seven Temporary Holding Facilities as well as two Migrant Custody Centres over the next two and a half years.

The EU ‘Consultancy to Set Up Custody Centres and Temporary Holding Facilities for Irregular Migrants’ will help Ukraine detain and adequately treat irregular migrants - in compliance with European best practices and humanitarian standards set by Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the EU acquis communitaire.

In 2011 state border guard service revealed 3,965 irregular migrants

In first half of year 2011, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) officers revealed 3,965 irregular migrants, which is 2.7 fold less against the same period of year 2010, reports First Deputy Chairman of the SBGS Pavlo Shysholin in an interview to newspaper “Prykordonnyk Ukrainy” in August, 2011.

According to Mr. Shysholin, this is a trend, which began to show over recent years and speaks about effectiveness of work of the SBGS in cooperation with other law-enforcement bodies and border guard services of bordering countries.

Counter-Racism Programs in Ukraine Defend Refugees

The ABA ROLI-supported counter-racism programs continue to help refugees and foreigners assert their rights.

Early 2011, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) awarded advocacy grants to seven Ukrainian non-governmental organizations as part of its program to combat xenophobia and racism. The ABA ROLI-supported programs—some of which are in full swing while others are coming to a close—have been successful.

In June 2011, a Palestinian national sought assistance from one of the grantees, the Chernihiv Public Committee for Human Rights Protection. Staff at the Chernihiv City Hospital refused him emergency medical assistance despite his refugee status, which would qualify him for the medical service. The committee filed an official complaint with the local public health department. Subsequent negotiations enabled the man to be admitted and treated at the hospital, with the Red Cross covering his expenses.

Protection of the Rights of Foreigners, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers in Ukraine

The complex problem of stay of foreign nationals in any country always has many ramifications for both the foreigners and the authorities in the country of stay. Such authorities, while implementing relevant legislature and officially declaring their principles regarding the treatment of immigrants, intend to determine the ways to solve the already-existing and incipient problems that unavoidably occur in connection with entry and subsequent stay of foreign nationals in the country. Every such country has to seek its own immigration policy model that would not only sort out the related immigration processes and deal with the negative impact of uncontrolled immigration, but would also conform to the universally accepted international principles for protecting the human rights and freedoms of migrants and help the migrants to quickly adapt to the specific ethnic, socioeconomic, and cultural environment in their country of stay. At the same time, the required prerequisite for immigration policy development is, first and foremost, to conduct a complete analysis and evaluation of the country’s current immigration situation, together with making short-and-long term projections of the dynamics of immigration development and trends.

Ukraine tightens curbs on irregular immigration

The law on the regulation of immigration processes and strengthening accountability for irregular immigration has taken effect in Ukraine. The instrument expands the list of grounds for refusal of entry into Ukraine.

In particular, foreigners and persons without citizenship will be denied entry if they: are reasonably suspected of having the diseases included into the special list of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, enter Ukraine with a transit visa, but do not have the documents and paid tickets for entering the country of destination, if there is evidence of non-fulfillment of financial obligations to Ukraine, if they do not have sufficient financial support during their stay in Ukraine and for returning to the country of origin.

800 irregular migrants deported from European Union to Ukraine in 2010

In compliance with the Readmission Agreement, in 2010 about 800 irregular migrants have been deported to Ukraine from the European Union (EU), Chairman of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) Mykola Lytvyn told at press-conference in Kharkiv in May, 2011.

Mr. Lytvyn informed that out of total number of irregular migrants returned to Ukraine, 171 persons are citizens of South-Eastern Asia, the rest are Ukrainians and citizens of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries.

Action Week Against Racism in Chernihiv Region

European-wide Action Week Against Racism was held all over Europe from 14 to 27 March 2011 organized by the UNITED for Intercultural Action - pan-European network against nationalism, racism, fascism and in support of migrants and refugees.

Every year, around 21 March, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the UNITED Network (www.unitedagainstracism.org) coordinates the European-wide Action Week Against Racism and calls upon the international community to erase racism, discrimination and intolerance, bringing people together and enjoying diversity.

Legal Assistance for Victims of Racism and Hate Crimes

Chernihiv Public Committee for Human Rights Protection continues activity on giving legal aid to victims of hate crimes and violence.

The program goal is to protect the victims of racism and hate crimes, prevention of such crimes by giving free legal aid and other assistance to the vulnerable groups in Chernihiv Region as well as to the foreigners detained in the “Rozsudiv” Migrants Accommodation Center in Chernihiv Region. For this purpose there will be carried out a number of human rights, education and information actions with the participation of the representatives of interested parties: minorities, refugees, migrants, policemen and border guards, NGO activists and wide sections of the population.