Eastern Europe
ECRE has been working to support refugee-assisting organisations in the Russian Federation, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine since 1996. The programme aims to develop the rule of law and strong civil society, leading to more effective protection of refugees and asylum seekers. ECRE's current work in Eastern Europe has been generously funded by the European Commission's thematic programme on migration and asylum. The programme activities will run from 2009 until 2011, and are focused on independent NGO monitoring of returns and conditions of detention in Belarus, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. The recent enlargement of the European Union has lead to increased pressure being put on Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova to implement border controls, while at the same time respecting obligations to refugees at borders under international human rights law. Recent agreements on the readmission of own and third country citizens between Ukraine and Russia; Ukraine and the EU; Moldova and the EU, and the EU and the Russian Federation make it more important than ever to ensure independent monitoring of what is happening on the EU's external borders. One consequence of the readmission agreements is that the governments concerned have an interest in stopping the flow of asylum seekers across their border with the European Union. The increasing inaccessibility of routes to the West forces asylum seekers to take more dangerous routes. Currently, large numbers of forced asylum seekers and refugees are being detained and in some cases deported for committing administrative offences, such as illegally crossing a border. Conditions of detention at border crossing points for migrants and refugees are overcrowded and inhumane, and particularly threatening for female refugees and their children. Significant numbers of refugees and asylum seekers are being routinely returned from borders and airports in the region to countries where they are at risk of persecution. In Russia, arbitrary administrative procedures led to several recent cases of refugees, recognised by UNHCR, being sent back to countries where their lives were in danger.
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