Lawyers from 12 countries exchanged their experience in the asylum domain at a regional conference in Chisinau

The Head of the UN Refugee Agency, Mr. Traian Turcanu, states that through the event organized in Chisinau, which in fact is a first run in Chisinau, the organizers have tried to demonstrate the good practice of the Republic of Moldova as far as concerns providing legal assistance to asylum seekers, especially in the legal phase. ”The Republic of Moldova is a leader in the region in this domain. The National Legal Aid Council (NLAC) with an experience of over 10 years, is providing already for a few years assistance to asylum seekers and stateless persons. The success is due to the fact, that there are 12 highly qualified lawyers, specialized on asylum cases and who benefited from training through the European Asylum Support Office (EASO), an European institution that provides training to advocates and lawyers working in the asylum area.         

Traian Turcanu affirms that for the UN Refugee Agency, which is specialized in providing legal assistance to asylum seekers, it is important that “the provided assistance is gradually transferred, but firmly, towards the competent state authorities”. “Or, in the case of the Republic of Moldova, we have a successful example represented by the NLAC. We try to provide capacity building and development opportunities, to provide legal instruments and good practices applied at the European level. Through these instruments, we wish that it is made a correct distinction as soon as possible, related to persons who are in need of international protection, and those who do not need international protection, so that they are returned back home with dignity”, is the opinion of the Head of UNHC Office.         

The Executive Director of NLAC is speaking about the importance of other states’ experience in the region in the asylum area. “We need to learn the good practices of other countries in the region and adopt these further to the reality in our country. Be prepared to deal with eventually greater needs. Even if we do not have a large refugee number, compared to other countries, we need to be prepared to intervene any time and provide the necessary assistance”, considers Lilian Darii.

At present there is a very good cooperation between the NLAC, the Law Centre of Advocates, the Bureau for Migration and Asylum and UNHCR Moldova, as far as concerns providing legal assistance to asylum seekers, to refugees and stateless persons.   

„The way is functioinaing the system of providing legal assistance guaranteed by state, it can benefit both refugees and asylum seeekers, without additional expenditures or suplementary resources. This proves that the existing system is an efficient one”, emphasised the Executive Director of NLAC.

The experience obtained at the conference in Chisinau, is also important for Ukraine, as the regional conference included as a participant Ms. Irina Bondarenco, Head of the Legal Assistance Department of the Ministry of Justice in Ukraine. We learned that for over two years, refugees and asylum seekers in Ukraine are provided legal assistance guaranteed by state.

”In Ukraine, there are five thousand of advocates that provide legal assistance guaranteed by state in civil cases.  We have three regions in which refugees are concentrated, especially in Odesa. They are coming mainly from Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia, Georgia. They reach Ukraine because of armed, political or religious conflicts.”

“The regional conference held in Chisinau is important because we need other states’ experience concerning access to legal assistance guaranteed by state. For example, we learned that in Slovenia, besides the advocates specialized in the asylum domain, there are consultants, future lawyers, concerned about the refugees and asylum seekers issues. From the very beginning, they are involved in all the asylum procedure and may participate at any stage. We speak about collecting of documents, translation, etc. Besides the knowledge about the legislation, you need to know obligatory information about the country of origin, sources of information, what materials can assist advocates and lawyers to demonstrate in court that this person is in need of international protection.  The experience obtained at the conference will be shared also to other  colleagues in Ukraine, dealing with refugee cases”, assures Irina Bondarenco.  

The regional conference was attended by lawyers' colleagues from Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Republic, Tajikistan and Russia.