IOM Expert and Ukrainian Border Guard interviewing a migrant in detention (2010)

Ukraine occupies a pivotal position on several routes of irregular East-West migration for a diverse population of migrants, originating mainly from Central, Southern and Eastern Asia and Africa. The available statistics indicate that substantial part of third-country nationals attempt to enter the EU from Ukraine in an irregular manner, which, along with other factors, places management of irregular migration as one the key subjects in EU-Ukraine relations.

 Migration management remains one of the key issues for the Ukrainian Government and a priority component of reform. IOM’s Capacity Building in Migration Management (CBMM) Programme operates in accordance with its strategy to address Ukraine’s policy, legislative and administrative framework to engender the formulation of an all-encompassing approach to the challenges of irregular migration. IOM prioritizes partnerships with non-State actors and cooperation amongst State actors as important components of the capacity building process.

IOM enhances the Ukrainian Government’s capacity to manage migration flows and perform integrated border management.  IOM works with the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MOI) of Ukraine and the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) and partner NGOs to institutionalize the best practices on migrant accommodation centers and temporary holding facilities and to safeguard the human rights of migrants by establishing joint mechanisms for monitoring accommodation conditions, providing humanitarian assistance and improving migrants’ access to qualified medical, legal, interpretation, and other social services.  

Focusing on the long-term impact and sustainable solutions, IOM supports the SBGS’ transformation to an EU-compatible law enforcement agency through assisting the Service to reform its recruitment, training, and career development systems.  To bolster the SBGS’ training capacity, the Programme provides training equipment to and develops didactic material for four SBGS training facilities.

Furthermore, IOM produces studies and provides advice and counseling on legislative acts related to migration management, border management, readmission, and assisted voluntary return.

IOM’s main accomplishments in this area include pivotal transformation of the SBGS into an EU-type law enforcement agency, alignment of migration management in line with international standards, creation of a mechanism for monitoring of human rights of migrants in detention, improved human resources management capacities of the SBGS, replacement of SBGS conscripts with contracted personnel selected under EU-compliant recruitment procedures, the development of a Monitoring & Evaluation system in the SBGS to assess the efficiency and impact of the training system.