LEGAL ASSISTANCE TO FOREIGNERS

The basis for placement in the Point is a court decision on the forced expulsion of a foreigner from the territory of Ukraine, if the foreigner entered Ukraine illegally or violated the rules of stay in Ukraine. Foreigners can be held in the Point until the moment of forced expulsion, but not more than 6 months. However, today one of the main

problems is the lack of earmarked funds in the state budget for the forced expulsion of foreigners. A significant number of foreigners have been identified and law enforcement agencies have all the documents for expulsion, but there are no funds to purchase tickets. Also, since the beginning of 2009, there has been a shortage of funds for feeding foreigners. The center’s staff is about 170 people. 30-40 people come from Chernihiv. The rest are residents of the nearest town of Lyubech and surrounding villages. In total, the construction of the Center cost over 30 million hryvnias. Another 3 million hryvnias were allocated by international donors for the purchase of equipment and office equipment.

Recently, the Center was visited by a large delegation consisting of representatives of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies (Ministry of Internal Affairs, Border Guard Service, Security Service of Ukraine) and representatives of international organizations and embassies in Ukraine (UNODC, International Organization for Migration, embassies of France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Latvia). The main purpose of the visit was to communicate with foreigners, review the conditions of detention and food. During the visit, detained foreigners had the opportunity to talk about their problems and get answers to their questions.

As it turned out, the main and most painful issue for detainees is the length of time they have been in the Point. After all, many of the interviewees were placed in Rozsudov from other points, but the previous period of detention was not taken into account, as a result of which 6 months turned into 9, 12…, or even more months. In this regard, conflicts sometimes arose between irritated and tired migrants. However, as a result of the redistribution of residence

of foreigners by country of origin, the Point administration managed to prevent conflicts.

In 2010, the readmission agreement between Ukraine and the EU came into force, which obliges Ukraine to accept illegal migrants who crossed its border on their way to the EU countries. Both its own citizens and citizens of third countries who used Ukraine simply as a transit zone. Before transferring a migrant to Ukraine, the EU country must provide evidence that this person actually crossed the Ukrainian border. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the number of places for holding migrants.

In the near future, it is planned to finance the construction of the second stage of the Rosudov checkpoint. But now, due to the crisis in the state budget, there are no funds for this. In addition to the Chernihiv checkpoint, a similar facility has been opened in Volyn. It is also planned to open 3 more checkpoints for migrants on the territory of Ukraine. But funds for this have not yet been allocated.

Tukhan Ediev