Migration management visit to Italy
On 18-22 February 2013 the border guards of Belarus and Ukraine participated in a joint study visit on migration management to Italy held within the framework of EU-IOM project “SURCAP”, aimed at strengthening the surveillance capacity of the Belarus-Ukraine common border.
Migration management is a vital component of the integrated border management (IBM) concept, and as such, is a challenging topic that demands coordinated interagency and international cooperation. Thus, the joint delegation explored the complex Italian experience of migration management in the difficult setting of the Mediterranean and North Africa region. In addition to the targeted meetings with their Italian law enforcement colleagues, the Belarusian and Ukrainian border guards visited the Ponte Galeria Migrant Custody Centre to discuss, inter alia, upholding the rights of migrants in detention, identification and return.
The study visit specifically addressed the following issues:
- Policy and legislative framework for migration management within the IBM concept, implementation by Italian law enforcement agencies (mixed migration flows, readmission and return, apprehension and detention, identification, risk analysis, etc)
- Forms and methods used by border guards to ensure proper migration management, including counteracting irregular migration at border crossing points, green border and in-country control (mobile units).
- Engineering solutions to protect the most vulnerable border sectors.
- Actions to be taken by border officials during the detection and potential detention of irregular migrants in line with a rights-based approach
- Information analysis and evaluation methods used to disclose structure and modus operandi of organized crime groups organizing irregular migration channels.
- Cooperation with various law enforcement and public authorities (police, public prosecutor’s office, judiciary, etc.) to produce a coordinated response to irregular migration.
- Cooperation with the EU Border Agency «FRONTEX» in the field of counteracting irregular migration.
