Strengthen Kosovo Institutions in Effective Management of Migration

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1 Strengthen Kosovo Institutions in Effective Management of Migration Newsletter, 1st Edition, March - November 2017 CONTACT INFO EU TWINNING PROJECT STRENGTHENING KOSOVO INSTITUTIONS IN EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF MIGRATION MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF KOSOVO DEPARTMENT OF CITIZENSHIP, ASYLUM AND MIGRATION ADDRESS: STR. LUAN HARADINAJ N.N. PRISTINA, KOSOVO PHONE: (0) INFO@TWINNING-MIGRATION-KS.ORG MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS OF KOSOVO DEPARTMENT OF CITIZENSHIP, ASYLUM AND MIGRATION ADDRESS: STR. LUAN HARADINAJ N.N. PRISTINA, KOSOVO TEL: (0) ZIP-MPB@RKS-GOV.NET PROJECT PURPOSE Strengthen existing institutions capacity and ensure harmonization with EU standards in management of migration and asylum. Kosovo delegation met with officials from Austrian Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, as part of the study visit to Austria on detection and detention of illegal migrants, and enforcement of return, 18 October MAIN ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE PROJECT SO FAR First part of assessment KS migration legislation has been carried out (comparing Law on Foreigners and Law on Asylum with latest European Union directives and best practices EU Member States). Current amended draft Law on Foreigners and draft Law on Asylum were assessed to be fully in line with latest acquis. Furthermore, Guidelines for the Readmission and Reintegration of Unaccompanied Children have been drafted and adopted, and draft Regulation for the Information System in the field of Citizenship and Migration has been produced. Most activities regarding migration management in practice are still in assessment and information exchange phase. Planned activities Twinning Project in this area for the coming six months: followup assessment migration legislation in accordance with new LAGA guidelines, assessment strategy and action plan on migration for years , training course on detection, detention and return of irregular migrants, development annual training curriculum, preparation of a plan for information exchange on return and reintegration of returnees between Kosovo and EU MS and drafting a new reintegration strategy, implementation of public awareness campaign on the risks of irregular migration and the benefits of either staying in Kosovo or migrating in a legal way. This Twinning Project aims to contribute to the strengthening of Kosovo s Institutional capacities in the field of migration and asylum in the long run. Priority will be given to capacity-building in the Kosovar institutions dealing with mixed migration, asylum, prevention of irregular migration, reintegration of returnees and regular migration. This project also aims to contribute to the development and implementation of a structural and targeted awareness campaing about the risks of irregular migration and the potential benefits of regular migration, clarification of the rights and obligations of visa-free travel and information on rules regulating access to the EU labor market. This Twinning action will furthermore support Kosovo Institutions in fulfilling its requirements deriving from the Stabilization and Association Agreement, more specifically in the field of freedom, security and justice. DURATION OF PROJECT 30 Months, from March 2016 and it foressen to last until September 2018 EDITORIAL STAFF EDITOR IN CHIEF - Timo Langemeijer EDITOR - Ardian Nrecaj ASSISTANT EDITOR - Arlinda Zylali LAYOUT AND DESIGN - Ardian Nrecaj An EU funded project managed by the European Union office in Kosovo 1

2 On 29 April 2016, the formal opening of the Twinning Project took place with a kick-off event at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. ACTIVITIES IN COMPONENT 1 March 2016 Assessment of existing legislation on foreigners and asylum The Latvian short term experts carried out an assessment of the harmonisation of Kosovo Law on Foreigners and Law on Asylum with the latest acquis communautaire and helped to formulate the text of the amendments. This activity was carried on the first week of the start of the project with request of Beneficiary Country, the reason was that these amendments had to be carried out in this period according to the National Programme for Implementation of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (NPISAA). Drafting a regulation on data management in the field of migration The purpose of the activity was drafting of an internal regulation on data management in the field of migration. The EU experts and MIA had to ensure that the collection, processing and level of access of migration data will be in line with EU acquis and national data protection legislation. The mission report was written with an annex containing several recommendations in the field of Information Technology. The short term experts also managed to produce a first draft of the regulation after the activity, based on the information they achieved. This draft will be further elaborated jointly during part b of the activity. ACTIVITIES IN COMPONENT 2 Assessment of the present visa issuing system The goal of this activity was to analyse the current visa issuing system and draft recommendations for possible improvement. Also during this assessment, the focus was more on the practical aspects of the visa issuing system. A major point of attention during the meetings was the fact that the number of embassies of Kosovo is very small, which creates difficulties for the issuance of visas abroad. In the project planning phase, outsourcing the visa issuance was taken into consideration in order to tackle this issue. The experts, however, suggested the introduction of an e-visa system, because the current number of visas issued per embassy is too small to make outsourcing economically viable. July 2016 Assessment of the current situation regarding training on migration management The objective was to analyse the current situation regarding training on migration issues in the Kosovo state institutions and to draw up recommendations for further development. The main discussion item was the fact that DCAM is too small for developing its own training centre, so the experts studied the possibilities for cooperation between DCAM and existing local training institutions that provide training to civil servants. 2

3 July 2016 Assessment of existing organisation and management of detention centre for foreigners The objective of the mission was to evaluate the current situation regarding detention of foreign nationals in the Detention Centre for Foreigners in Kosovo and to draw up recommendations for further development. It was meant as a practical assessment of the organisation and management of the Centre. A major point of attention by the EU experts was the very small number of staff of the Detention Centre; a certain minimum amount of staff is needed in order to make it possible to keep the centre operational 24 hours per day and be prepared for a possible larger influx. Seminar on development of visa systems (including e-visa systems) During this activity, the short term experts gave presentations on the EU (conform) visa system followed by short presentations of the Austrian, Polish and Swedish national systems. Subsequently, they discussed the further development of the Kosovo visa system with the participants. October 2016 Study visit to Austria and Latvia on detection and detention of illegal migrants and enforcement of return The study visit started in Vienna, Austria, where the participants were welcomed by the Ministry of Interior of Austria. They met with several departments which provided information on the Austrian procedures regarding detection, detention and return of illegal migrants as well as anti-trafficking measures. Subsequently they visited the Detention Centres for Irregular Migrants in Vienna and Vordernberg (Styria) in order to see how the detention procedures work in practice, and the international airport of Vienna in order to see how detection, detention and return at the border functions in practice. During the second part of the study visit they travelled to Latvia where they received information on the Latvian legal system and practice regarding the same topics during meetings with the State Border Guard and Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs. The participants also visited the Accommodation Centre for Asylum seekers in Mucenieki, the Board of the State Border Guard in Daugavpils and the Detention Centre for Irregular Migrants in Daugavpils, where they could see how the detection, detention and return at the border works in practice. The project has four components with the following expected results: Component 1: Migration is mainstreamed into governmental strategies; policies and legal framework, and especially the National Strategy on Migration and related Action Plan, are fully implemented, updated, and enhanced in line with EU standards and best practices. Component 2: Component leaders from Beneficiary Country and Member States met a day before second Steering Committee meeting, and discussed communication and coordination in the Twinning Project. Improved institutional capacity to manage regular migration, asylum and prevention of irregular migration. Component 3: Relevant national and local authorities capacitated to plan, carry out, and monitor the reintegration of returnees within the framework of the overall de-centralisation process of reintegration services. Component 4: Public awareness about the risks of irregular migration and the potential benefits of regular migration is raised among Kosovo citizens and in particular potential migrants. 3

4 Kosovo delegation met with Latvian State Border Guard as part of the study visit to Latvia on detection and detention of illegal migrants, and enforcement of return, 25 October October 2016 Assessment of existing model of reception of asylum seekers The purpose of this activity was to assess the Kosovo asylum reception system. The short term experts had discussions on all aspects of the reception system (both legal as well as practical) with the main actors involved, not only with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo but also with Non-governmental Organizations providing legal assistance and social assistance services. Some of the main needs according to the experts were that the outflow of the system needs to be regulated (transfer to municipalities and integration process), that the staff needs to be increased with at least 1 or 2 persons (including at least 1 female officer) and that the budget lines need to be revised. ACTIVITIES IN COMPONENT 3 Drafting guidelines on the readmission and reintegration of repatriated unaccompanied minors The purpose of this activity was to finalise the draft guidelines on the readmission and reintegration of unaccompanied minors in Kosovo, based on the number of returned unaccompanied minors from sending countries that need special reintegration measures, also deriving from National Implementation of Program on SAA. The experts drafted a few recommendations for the finalisation of the guidelines, focusing mainly on the rights of the child. The guidelines served a mutual benefit as the draft guidelines prepared by the MIA were already of such quality that they will be used by Sweden as an example for other countries. June July 2016 Assessment mission on strategic reintegration documents and production of questionnaire to municipalities regarding implementation of actions in the action plan The objective was to evaluate the major central documents on reintegration, to map the achievements so far and to analyse in collaboration with relevant Kosovo authorities how far they have reached in the benchmarks set out in the central documents. The sub-component also includes assessment and support to the decentralisation of the decision making and budgetary issues concerning the requests for support from the Reintegration Fund. 4

5 ACTIVITIES IN COMPONENT 4 April 2016 Drafting terms of reference and launching of the tender for the measurement of the awareness before, during and after the campaign Terms of reference were drafted during this activity in which the time frame, purpose and scope as well as deliverables of the evaluation are clearly formulated. The project partners agreed that it is more effective to meet personally with a couple of research companies which are known to have experience in measuring public awareness as the number of competent institutions in Kosovo with sufficient experience in this field is only small. Meetings with three research companies were organised. And a selection sheet (evaluation grid) was produced as well as a draft list of questions for the questionnaire. Assessment: mapping of the communication landscape: organisation, rules lessons learned, target groups, media and messages The goal of this activity was to carry out an assessment of the current knowledge and experience of Ministry of European Integration, Ministry of Internal Affairs and other organisations in Kosovo in the area of communication and public awareness campaigning, in particular in the area of raising the awareness of the population of Kosovo with regard to the risks of illegal migration and the advantages of legal migration (or staying in Kosovo). The assessment was meant as a basis for the public awareness campaign that will be carried out by the Twinning Project (together with the survey report, see next activity). July Evaluation of the campaign Based on the terms of reference and the grid for the selection of the service provider that were developed in a previous activity, a service provider was selected for the measurement of the awareness of the population of Kosovo in the field of the risks of illegal migration, and the advantages/possibilities of legal migration. before the start of public awareness campaign in this area. The selected company carried out inquiries, tabulated the results and drafted the report. Drafting the action plan/ terms of references and launching of the tender for the production of information material and preparation of the content of the information material Based on the previous assessment reports an action plan was drafted for the implementation of the campaign. The action plan largely follows the work plan but also entails a couple of changes in the work plan. During the same activity three terms of reference were produced for production of the video and audio message, for other information materials, such as flyers, posters, a roll-up banner etc., and for broadcasting the video and audio message on national and local TV and radio. TWINNING Twinning is a European Union instrument for institutional cooperation between public administrations of EU Member States and of beneficiary countries. Twinning projects bring together public sector expertise from EU Member States and beneficiary countries with the aim of achieving concrete mandatory operational results through peer to peer activities. Twinning aims to provide support for the transposition, implementation and enforcement of the EU legislation (the Union acquis). It builds up capacities of beneficiary countries public administrations throughout the accession process, resulting in progressive, positive developments in the region. Twinning strives to share good practices developed within the EU with beneficiary public administrations and to foster long-term relationships between administrations of existing and future EU countries. PROJECT PARTNERS Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo (beneficiary). Immigration and Naturalisation Service (Ministry of Security and Justice) of the Netherlands (senior partner). Federal Ministry of the Interior of Austria (junior partner). Swedish Migration Agency (junior partner). These are only the project partners who are responsible for the coordination of the Twinning Project. Various other ministries and agencies from the abovementioned countries will deliver expertise to the project, as well as several ministries and agencies from Belgium, Latvia and Poland. This publication has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The content of this publication are the sole responsibility of the project partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. 5