Legal aid providers in Chernihiv region received training on protecting the rights of asylum seekers and refugees

On August 13, 2020, a training session “International and National Standards for the Protection of the Rights of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Ukraine” was held in Chernihiv for employees of free secondary legal aid centers and lawyers of the Chernihiv region.

Addressing the participants of the training, the Director of the Regional Center for Free Secondary Legal Aid in Chernihiv Region

Iryna Protchenko

emphasized the importance of holding such events and raising the level of awareness of lawyers and employees of the BVLA centers in migration legislation.

“Such an event is very important for our region because there are only 3 temporary residence points for foreigners and stateless persons in Ukraine, and one of them is in Chernihiv region,” the head of the regional center of the BVPD noted.

Nadiya Edieva

, head of programs of the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights, noted that recent changes in the legislation require representatives of the legal and human rights community to pay special attention to supporting cases on the extradition of individuals and preventing the deportation of foreigners to countries where they may be subjected to torture and ill-treatment, including in the context of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights.

The trainer of the event was a leading Ukrainian expert on migration issues, lawyer

Ostap Tymchiy

. During the training, the participants were able to familiarize themselves with international and national legal mechanisms in the field of protection of the right to asylum, procedures for determining refugee status under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Law of Ukraine “On Refugees and Persons in Need of Supplementary or Temporary Protection”, the features of appealing decisions of the migration service to refuse to accept an asylum seeker’s application for recognition as a refugee or a person in need of supplementary protection, and the preparation of documents for consideration of such applications, and examined the main aspects of the problem of statelessness and the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in the context of considering asylum seeker cases.

In a separate block of the training, the participants examined the issue of stateless persons in the context of the new Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Recognition as a Stateless Person” dated 06/16/2020.

Volodymyr Bobruyko

, director of the local center for providing free secondary legal aid, spoke about his work experience in the field of migration law. He shared current processes, statistics, and practical aspects of work at the Chernihiv temporary residence center for foreigners and stateless persons.

The event was organized by the Chernihiv Public Committee for the Protection of Human Rights with the support of the Press, Education, and Culture Department of the US Embassy in Ukraine within the framework of the project “Ensuring Access to Justice for Asylum Seekers, Migrants, and Other Vulnerable Groups of Foreign Citizens in Ukraine”.