Belarusian Border Guards Learn Facilitated Readmission Experience from Macedonian and Albanian Colleagues

In the light of the preparation for signing of the Readmission agreement with the European Union, readmission issues, including facilitated readmission, are especially important for the Republic of Belarus.

In this regard, during the period of 18-24 February, 2018, the IOM Mission in Belarus organized a study visit on facilitated readmission to Macedonia and Albania for the Belarusian border guard officers.

During the visit the Belarusian border guards learned about the infrastructure of the automobile and air border crossing points, as well as visited the open-type and closed type migrants centers. The delegates had several meetings with the top management of Macedonian and Albanian police, who shared their experience in the field of irregular migration management, establishment and operations of mobile migrants accommodation centers in the context of the recent migration crisis in Europe. The latter especially relates to Macedonia that was part of the Balkan migrants route on their way to Europe and that had to take urgent measures to manage migrants flows.

Readmission is a tool for countering irregular migration. The unique experience in this field obtained by the participants during the visit can be adapted and used in the work of the Belarusian Border Committee, as well as taken into account when preparing Belarus for the signing of the Readmission agreement with the EU, as well as the development of an appropriate infrastructure.

The visit was organized within the framework of the international technical assistance project “Strengthening the Readmission Capacity of the Republic of Belarus”, funded by the International Organization for Migration. The project will be the part of the large-scale EU-funded project on readmission that is expected to kick off in the nearest future.