28 April 2005
Refugees and international migration issues on agenda of Brest workshop of Belarusian mass media
The issues of refugees and international migration are on the agenda of the workshop in Brest which united more than two dozens of state and private Belarusian mass media, public relations manager of the international association on UN studies and information and educational programs Olga Grandinar told BelTA. The event has been organized by the European Commission, UN High Commissioner’s Office for Refugees, international association on UN studies and information and educational programs and the Belarusian State University. As Belarusian representative of the UN High Commissioner’s Office for Refugees Ilia Todorovich told the workshop the “eastward EU expansion resulted in a common border between Belarus and EU totaling several hundreds of kilometers. The territory of the republic is a transit corridor for illegal migrants’ going west. This is why this January Belarus and EU TACIS-UNHCR approved of a joint project to further strengthen national asylum system”. The total investments to this program amount to EUR 427,000 with EUR 365,000 of the sum accounting for the EU TACIS-UNHCR share. The program is to be fully implanted in April 2006. The project will be implemented in cooperation with the interior ministry of Belarus, State Border Troops Committee, Gomel Town Council and several international and republican public organizations. Its main goal is to create a comprehensive system of granting asylum to citizens recognized refugees, which will meet all necessary international standards. Insofar as the practical assistance is concerned, it will be rendered to develop a national plan on receiving refugees, to amend the national legislation in this sphere, to provide migration services with computer equipment, to hold training seminars and to set up a temporary residence zone for those who are seeking asylum. According to Ilia Todorovich, problems of refugees should find understating in those countries, where they are seeking asylum. Mass media outlets play a special role in this work. In this connection the three-day workshop in Brest is considering urgent issues connected with refugees and international migration. Its program includes discussion of the reports on ensuring international refugees’ protection and the specific character of covering these issues by mass media, practical studies in groups, demonstration of films and a quiz “Who is a refugee?”. More so, participants of the workshop will visit neighboring regions of Poland to familiarize themselves with the experience in settling problems of refugees and their covering in local mass media.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news570.html