New insights: Legal aid needs in mixed migration flows
A research partnership between DRC in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the University of Sarajevo has resulted in new insights into the legal aid needs among an easily overseen group of vulnerable people in the mixed migration flows.
The lack of translators and cultural mediators often cause problems and are in fact some of the biggest hurdles in working with people on the move. These are among key findings from the research partnership between DRC in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the University of Sarajevo. It furthermore points to the fact stressed by several public institutions that such enabling factors impact the processes of identification, burial of persons who died during their stay in the country, as well as the forced return of persons who were not granted asylum.
The research was carried out during June and July 2022 by DRC in Bosnia and Herzegovina in collaboration with Dr. Damir Banović from the Faculty of Law of the University of Sarajevo. Looking into the legal aid needs and gaps among persons who are not in the asylum-seeking process and have been in Bosnia and Herzegovina for some time, has eventually provided valuable lessons.
‘We met with a range of institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina – from the courts, prosecutor's offices, ministries, and centers for social work. We asked them to help us in identifying the specific needs and problems that people on the move may have when they meet and face these particular institutions here,' tells Liam Isić, DRC Protection Monitoring Officer in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The research was carried out in line with international standards, looking at the international frameworks for protection of human rights and its comparison and general practices applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
‘Although Bosnia and Herzegovina is a transit country on the Balkan migration route, we all need to do our best to introduce people on the move to their rights and possibilities of using legal aid while residing here,’ says Damir Banović, University of Sarajevo.
These latest insights from the research partnership are essential to creating more awareness among the parties involved and inform not least the work of DRC in the country.
‘I left my home with the hope that one day I will live in a country where basic human rights will be respected. I hope that I will fulfill my dreams in Europe. I the meanwhile – and during my time here in Bosnia and Herzegovina - I appreciate having access to legal aid to help me understand my rights and my options,’ says Omar from Afghanistan.
GREECE
Rooting for Rights
From January 2023, DRC in Greece – along the global vision to ensure a dignified life for all displaced - will expand access to legal aid through a new project called Rooting for Rights.
People entering the European Union (EU) are all too often victims of human rights violations occurring in the reception of applicants of international protection. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is the legislative framework that provides extended protection to right holders but national authorities and professionals in the refugee field are not always aware of its value.
Rooting for Rights (R4R), brings together four Southern European countries - Portugal, Malta, Cyprus, and Greece - with the main objective to promote the use of the Charter as a key instrument in the protection of the rights of international protection applicants. DRC’s efforts in the R4R project are focused on coordination and advocacy strategy development on national and EU level.
The overall aim of the R4R project is to strengthen inclusion and work towards ensuring equal non-discriminatory protection of people’s rights on European soil. The actual activities will increase capacities of civil societies and national systems on fundamental rights across the four countries in the project and where DRC will be the main actor in Greece. Here, law practitioners and other professionals will be trained to effectively use the Charter during legal case management and identify in-time cases that could lead to strategic litigation. Communities will be also engaged and key messages for the Charter will be developed to inform asylum seekers and refugees of their rights and entitlements.
The R4R project is funded by Europeans Union’s Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV) and the Consortium is formed by DRC Greece and Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR)in Greece, Cypress Refugee Council (CyRC) in Cyprus, Conselho Portugues Para Os Refugiados (CPR) in Portugal and Aditus Foundation in Malta.
Already home to thousands of people forming the Ukrainian diaspora, Italy has seen a large influx of refugees from Ukraine since war broke out on 24 February 2022. DRC Italy responds to a variety of needs among the newly arrived and has reached thousands in need of support – including through legal aid.
While the numbers in Italy are gradually decreasing, hundreds of refugees from Ukraine are entering the country every day, mainly reaching family or friends already residing here. The Ukrainian diaspora in Italy amounts to approximately 250,000 people of whom many are now hosting displaced countrymen and – primarily – women as well as children. Recent data from Italy’s Ministry of Internal Affairs suggests that at least 171,546 people from Ukraine have arrived since March.
The DRC hotline team
To respond to new needs for support, DRC Italy opened a hotline targeting people arriving from Ukraine along two intertwined streams of activities related to protection-information management and legal aid. The hotline is open 5 days per week (Monday-Friday) from 9 am to 7 pm, with 6 Ukrainian, Russian, Italian, and English-speaking staff responding to the queries of refugees from Ukraine (Ukrainian and third-country nationals) entering the Piedmont Region, as well as of the host community in need of information.
A DRC Legal Aid Officer works with the hotline team to provide in-depth legal analysis and legal support of complex cases. This also allows for support to drafting legal documents, facilitating contacts to relevant institutions, public social services, as well as assessing protection needs and community assets to identify risks and vulnerabilities.
DRC Italy hotline for Ukrainians and host communities: +39 011 432 67 00
Questions mostly about temporary protection
The national Decree on temporary protection and assistance for refugees fleeing Ukraine grants residence permit in Italy to both Ukrainian citizens as well as to foreigners (and their families) who already had obtained international protection in Ukraine or had a long-standing residence permit.
While the majority of legal aid requests comes from Ukrainian citizens and concern access to temporary protection, several cases came from third-country nationals who lived in Ukraine with permanent and/or temporary residence permits (e.g., study or work permits).
Third-country nationals from Ukraine
Expanding access to protection and legal aid also to third-country nationals has been a priority since the establishment of the hotline. In fact, foreigners who, at the time of leaving Ukraine, had a temporary residence permit have not only to prove that they cannot return to their country of origin safely, but they also often encountered difficulties in travelling through Europe and entering Italy, as well as moving to another EU country. Episodes of pushbacks of such third-country nationals at the Italian/French border are increasing day by day.
It is pivotal for all DRC Italy staff, especially in activities with a Legal Aid component, to keep the focus on the need to protect everyone who is in danger or fleeing a war or a crisis, regardless of his/her nationality, or any other characteristic.
DRC has directly reached over more than 8,290 beneficiaries in the past months, and indirect through campaigns and other outreach and additional at least 24,870 people.
Dialogue with minorities in Kosovo on human rights and legal aid
Legal aid needs, children dropping out of school, and widespread discrimination. DRC gathers members of the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities in Kosovo to discuss their concerns and find new ways to advocate their concerns and inclusion in law making.
Minorities in Kosovo – in particular the female members - often know only little about their property rights and the legal system in general, preventing them from benefits or making use of possibilities they are otherwise entitled to. These were among the concerns raised during recent discussions with minority representatives in Kosovo.
‘We are aware that there are significant gaps in terms of access to adequate legal aid and awareness of rights among the minority communities – and we would like to continue to learn more about them,’ tells Kristen Stec, Country Director of DRC in Kosovo.
As part of the DRC project here ‘Promoting the rights and freedoms of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities’ - and with the aim to enhance access to legal aid to minority communities in Kosovo - DRC and an NGO called the Kosovo Law Institute (KLI), organised two open discussions in October and November with members of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities. These targeted minorities in the municipalities of Peja/Peć and Obiliq/Obilić from where 23 persons participated in both events, and with 10 women among the participants.
‘These recent discussions provide us with a detailed understanding of the actual challenges and concerns – for example related to children dropping out of school as they are forced to work in order to financially support their families. We also learn more about the discrimination that members of these communities are facing on a daily basis, often regarding their possibilities of employment. Even those who have proper education can often not find jobs,’ says Kristen Stec.
Public information and critical case management
The discussions furthermore aim at informing and updating members of the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities on topics such as policy making in Kosovo, rights and possibilities in the education system, as well as creating awareness of the process of initiation of drafting of the laws and their approval. On the agenda were also the provisions of actual legal aid by the Kosovo Law Institute and treatment of cases of domestic violence.
In the vast array of concerns, their challenges range from waste disposal to the inability of the legal system to proceed with their cases when they are reported to the police or the prosecutors’ office. Participants explained how the feel discriminated against, as they have filed complaints to relevant bodies but never received answers from them.
The project is financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), represented by the Swedish Embassy in Pristina, supported by DRC and implemented by local NGO known as Kosovo Law Institute (KLI).
Enhancing access of GBV survivors to the asylum system in Serbia
DRC engages in new partnership in Serbia to increase protection of the most vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. The main goal of is to strengthen protection mechanism for gender-based violence survivors and enhance their access to the asylum system.
Gender-based violence (GBV) can occur at any point in a person's life, in times of peace or instability. But in emergency settings, GBV exacerbates. Violence, insecurity and discrimination drive many women and girls to flee or migrate. They continue to face violation and abuse along the routes towards their destination, including trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Despite the fact that migrant women and girls are recognised as multiple discriminated groups, there is a lack of tailored and targeted services for their support.
DRC is the UNHCR GBV focal point in Serbia since 2018. During this period, DRC has built extensive experience and supported more than 200 GBV survivors. The vast majority of them survived multiply forms of violence at different stages of their life, at different places - in country of origin and along the route with most coming from Afghanistan and some African countries, including Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cameroun.
Although GBV is a serious human rights abuse, it is not fully recognised as a protection ground. This is the case not least in Serbia. Since 2008, only 228 persons have been granted subsidiary and refugee status out of which in just two cases GBV was recognised as a ground for seeking asylum.
IDEAS and DRC commitments
With the purpose to strengthen cooperation in providing support to the most vulnerable groups of refugees and asylum seekers, DRC has now forged a strategic partnership with the Serbian NGO IDEAS Centre for Research and Social Development. The Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two parties focuses on combating the phenomenon of GBV and will guide the joint provision of quality legal representation for survivors of GBV in asylum and other procedures. DRC and IDEAS have furthermore agreed on exchanging knowledge and good practices as well as capacity building activities by DRC for IDEAS social workers and lawyers.
IDEAS responsibility is primarily to provide pro bono legal assistance to GBV survivors referred by DRC. The partnership is recognising as well the high level of specialisation and competences of IDEAS in providing support to unaccompanied and separated children (UASC) and high-quality legal representation in asylum procedures.
DRC responsibilities are centered around early identification of needs related to GBV and provision of adequate counselling and individual case management for GBV survivors. DRC will also be offering legal aid and support to draft reports for asylum seekers who have experienced GBV. These reports support the written asylum application aiming at decreasing the risk of secondary victimisation.
The common grounds for the partnership are firstly a common understanding of root causes of GBV as well as ethical procedures, but also having child-friendly and gender-sensitive standards for protection and legal representation, and a joint commitment to ensuring a complaints and feedback mechanism. DRC has kickstarted the partnership with a training on GBV in Emergencies for IDEAS’ lawyers and newly appointed DRC staff.
Tangible impact
Since the beginning of 2022, DRC and IDEAS have supported 10 GBV survivors in Serbia of whom four women from four different countries have been granted refugee status. In all cases, DRC reports have been taken in consideration and quoted in the reasoning of the decisions. The asylum applications have also been supported with the Istanbul Protocol Reports. The number of hearings as well as the length of hearings have decreased in all four cases.
The winding road to sustainable housing for internally displaced
DRC’s legal aid programme is a key component and an integral part of a holistic response in South Caucasus. It ties into work related to both the protection and shelter sectors in a context where comprehensive needs related to protracted internal displacement persist.
Concerns around housing are critical in South Caucasus, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have lived in dire conditions for decades. Many have been waiting for 30 years to be assigned proper accommodation, living in abandoned public buildings such as old sanatoriums, schools, or hotels substituting as temporary shelters. It is people from these settlements that come to DRC with questions and concerns, hoping to receive information and support that may guide them to more sustainable housing.
Over the past three years, DRC’s legal aid team has worked to support internally displaced families as part of a Durable Housing project. This has entailed a variety of challenges related to the process of settling in a new area – from practical support to obtain house construction permits on time, facilitate electrical contracting and power supply with local municipalities, or prepare documentation related to communications systems.
Registration of a home
Legal assistance is critical among displaced communities and individuals in their process towards settling after having lived for decades in the periphery of society. Settling into new and own homes is a cumbersome process that require collecting personal identification and files of all family members such as birth, marriage, or death certificates. These steps are a precondition to be able to finally proceed with actual property registration. DRC in South Caucasus has assisted 145 internally displaced families to formally settle in after having received newly constructed individual houses under their ownership since 2020.
‘We have gained solid experience and in-depth knowledge related to IDP rights and practices in Georgia. As we are in contact as well with displaced people daily - whether they are DRC beneficiaries or not - we know what is worrying them and where the legal aid and protection gaps are. Our small team of lawyers are fighting every day for the rights of internally displaced people in Georgia,’ tells Lela Keshelava, DRC South Caucasus Legal Expert.
Support in displacement hotspots
The legal aid team frequently visits settlements for internally displaced, giving individual as well as group consultations in Samegrelo town where the highest concentration of displaced is apparent. Nearly every day, people here turn up at the DRC field office in Zugdidi town, seeking support to draft procedural documentations to be filed with judicial or administrative authorities.
DRC staff furthermore advise displaced persons on their rights and obligations, and on legal, economic and social guarantees, such as eligibility for monthly IDP allowance, social or other types of assistance prescribed for all citizens by the law. Questions arise on multiple aspects related to the legal status of Internal Displacement as such – including on and how to proceed with granting, suspending, terminating, and depriving IDP status.
The Durable Housing activities are part of a project funded by funded by the German Development Bank (KfW).
Legal aid to newly displaced who struggle to apply for financial aid
Along with the trauma of war and being internally displaced in Ukraine, millions of people find themselves in new and difficult situations when they want to apply for financial support from the government. DRC works to continuously expand access to legal aid through local partners across key locations in the country.
Anna, a woman in her 30s is one of many who have been forced to make a difficult decision to leave behind their homes, jobs, and livelihoods in Luhansk Oblast since the war in Ukraine broke out in February. Together with her two underaged children, she fled in June to the western part of the country.
In Volyn Oblast, everything was new to her, and she did not know where to start - where to find shelter for her and the children, and work to make enough money for them to get by. Back in her hometown in Luhansk, she used to work in a government administration office. Now, being job- and homeless she needed to rely on government subsidy but did not know how to apply or proceed. That was when she came across a Ukrainian NGO Free Legal Secondary Aid Center (FLSAC), a DRC supported partner providing legal assistance.
Newly displaced and unregistered
It turned out that Anna and her children did not have an officially registered status as internally displaced, a formal registration requirement that is a precondition for internally displaced prior to receiving financial support from the government.
With the help from one of FLASC’s lawyers, Oleksiy, Anna submitted the needed documents, applied for the status and soon after she and the children were able to receive state benefits. The lawyer also helped Anna fill out forms to receive financial and humanitarian assistance from international organisations, such as dignity kits, emergency cash grants and other types of support.
Legal aid – and a job
During a legal consultation for a group in one of the local communities in the oblast where Anna and her children was hosted, Oleksiy learned about a vacancy for a state registrar. Remembering that Anna worked in such a position in Luhansk Oblast, he advised her to apply. The attempt was successful - now Anna has a new job and can provide for her family in a new city.
DRC’s partnership with FLASC is made possible through funds from the European Union through its Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations.
