Friday 6 December 2002

Press Briefing Notes
Friday 6 December 2002
Spokesperson: Christopher Lom

1. CAMBODIA - Migration management capacity building
2. UKRAINE - Counter-trafficking workshop for judges and investigators
3. LITHUANIA - Social workers trained to help victims of trafficking
4. SOUTH CAUCUSUS - Return and reintegration of migrants

CAMBODIA - Migration management capacity building - IOM has launched a three-year technical cooperation project designed to build Cambodia's migration management capacity with a view to combating illegal migration and human trafficking.

The Australian-financed Enhanced Migration Management (EMM) programme will include an overhaul of the Cambodian Department of Foreigners (DOF), the creation of a DOF training section and induction training for all DOF staff. The training curriculum, which will include the training of trainers, will include English; computer applications; migration legislation and policy; practical migration management; combating smuggling and trafficking in human beings; combating illegal migration; and migration and security.

The project will also help the Cambodian authorities to develop migration-related legislation based on international best practices and will lay the foundations of a computerized border control system by standardizing manual border controls. Computerised border control systems will be introduced at selected checkpoints.

UKRAINE - Counter-Trafficking workshop for judges and investigators - Today sees the conclusion of a two-day IOM counter-trafficking training seminar for Ukrainian judges and investigators in Kyiv. The seminar, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and organised in conjunction with the Supreme Court and the Ministry of the Interior, addressed investigation practices; typical problems that arise during pre-trial investigation of trafficking cases; international legislation and intergovernmental cooperation in combating trafficking in human beings; as well as possible amendments to the law.

Attendees included 27 judges from all regions of Ukraine, as well as Supreme Court judges, Ministry of Interior investigators, representatives from the Presidential Administration and staff from the Institute for Training and Re-training of Prosecutors.

LITHUANIA - Social workers trained to help trafficking victims - On Monday IOM Vilnius in partnership with the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour and Vilnius University Social Work Department will launch the first of two 2-day training seminars for social workers working with the victims of human trafficking.

The Lithuanian government-funded training, which will target 40 social work professionals from state institutions and NGOs working with vulnerable women, is part of IOM's "Assistance to Trafficking Victims in the Baltic States" programme.

The case study-based training aims to provide the participants with practical rather than theoretical knowledge, which will help them in their everyday work. The materials and methodology developed for the seminar will eventually be integrated into regular training programmes for Lithuanian social workers.

SOUTH CAUCUSUS - Return and reintegration of migrants - This new IOM research report looks at the process of return and reintegration for failed asylum seekers and irregular migrants from western Europe to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It assesses the impact on their families and communities.

The study, which was carried out by the IOM missions in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan between October 2001 and March 2002, involved interviews with 103 returnees on two occasions. The first interview focused on the migrants' stay abroad, their return and, in particular, their reintegration efforts. The second interview took place six weeks later to evaluate their reintegration and assess their future plans.

The sample included three categories of returnees: people returning voluntarily with the assistance of IOM (41 respondents); deported migrants (35) and persons who returned on their own initiative (27 respondents).

The report shows that most migrants went abroad with the intention of improving their living standards and supporting their families back home. Almost all tried to use the asylum procedure to obtain a permanent or temporary residence permit abroad. All but one had failed in this attempt.

About half of the respondents qualified their stay abroad as a success, while the other half felt that it had been a failure. Those who described their stay abroad as a success usually had fewer problems in adapting to the situation back home.

According to the report, most respondents ended up worse off than before they left. Their stay abroad was not particularly beneficial in terms of newly acquired skills or contacts that could help them to find a job or start a business at home. Migrants who returned without any capital were often unable to find a job in their own communities and reported a number of financial, social and psychological problems.

The health of most respondents was worse when they returned, mainly as a result of stress from the failure of staying abroad. An additional stress factor was linked to the fact that they had not been able to earn enough money abroad and could not repay debts contracted to finance their departure. This resulted in strained relations with family members and communities.

The report states that, given the opportunity, half of the respondents would to go abroad again to escape poor socio-economic conditions at home. The vast majority of respondents added, however, that they would prefer to stay in their own country if they believed they could improve their situation.

IOM is currently facilitating a dialogue between the three "sending" countries of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) and a number of traditional "receiving" countries to address migration and migration issues of mutual concern. This co-management approach among a small group of countries of destination, transit and origin, called the "Cluster" process, was begun between South Caucasus and western European countries at the beginning of 2001.

The participating countries identified and agreed to work on, five main areas of cooperation measures, including: information campaigns to control irregular migration; readmission agreements; reintegration assistance for returning migrants; enhanced information exchange among relevant authorities and technical cooperation and capacity building programmes for the governments concerned.