July / August 2018 News from the Prague Process Region
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ARMENIA |
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EU Cooperation |
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For the Armenia-EU visa regime liberalization, a preliminary, particularly specialized dialogue is required - the Ambassador of France |
Rus |
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EU survey, costs of Schengen visas, financial support to Armenia: press conference of the Head of EUD in Armenia |
Rus |
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Petr Svitalsky: Agreement on visa liberalisation with Armenia will not be changed |
Rus |
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Mathias Kisler, German Ambassador in Armenia, told the head of State Migration Service about specificity of consideration of readmission applications |
Rus |
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| Merkel's historic visit to Armenia: Yerevan and Berlin ready for cooperation without geopolitical reversals | blognews.am | Rus | ||
| Germany Will Do Everything for EU Visa Liberalization for Armenia: Merkel | lragir.am | Eng | ||
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AZERBAIJAN |
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EU Cooperation |
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Migration: Bright minds mobilised for the future of the South Caucasus |
Eng |
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EU-Azerbaijan Business Forum 2018 |
Eng |
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Eurovillage |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Foreigner who detained for violating the requirements of migration legislation turned out to be on the wanted list of Interpol |
Eng |
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Conference on citizenship issues held at Qakh by State Migration Service |
Eng |
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Employees of the State Migration Service participate at the international summer school on migration research |
Eng |
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Information of the Public Relations Department of State Migration Service |
Eng |
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Foreigners and stateless persons will be able to obtain labor visa electronically |
Eng |
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Amendments to the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan related to migration entered into force |
Eng |
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The Chief of State Migration Service met with UN Resident Coordinator in Azerbaijan |
Eng |
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62 foreigners detained during the measures against illegal migration |
Eng |
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Information of the State Migration Service regarding the issuance of permits for temporary and permanent residence within the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan |
Eng |
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74 foreigners brought to administrative responsibility by the State Migration Service |
Eng |
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57 foreigners detained during the measures against illegal migration in the last two days |
Eng |
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42 foreigners detained during the measures against illegal migration by State Migration Service |
Eng |
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The registration at the place of residence will be available for foreigners and stateless persons wishing to stay in Azerbaijan for more than 15 days |
Eng |
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A press conference dedicated to the results of the six months of 2018 held at the State Migration Service |
Eng |
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Azerbaijani president allocates funds for additional measures on social protection of the population - DOST |
Eng |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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| MOBILAZE. Publication of the “Recommendations for the Roadmap to Refugee Integration Policy in Azerbaijan" |
Eng |
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International Summer School on Migration from 1 to 7 July 2018 in Azerbaijan |
Eng |
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| IOM held workshop for consular officers on combating human trafficking and protection of migrants’ rights | iom.az |
Eng |
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| Workshop on exploring migrant vulnerabilities and root causes of human trafficking in Azerbaijan held in Baku | iom.az |
Eng |
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| Second Regional Consultation on Facilitating Dialogue on Voluntary Return and Reintegration held in Nakhchivan | iom.az |
Eng |
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| Training of Trainers (ToT) on Irregular Migration, Combatting Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Human Beings for the State Border Service | iom.az |
Eng |
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GEORGIA |
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EU Cooperation |
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Angela Merkel: “Germany supports Georgia. That’s why I am here” |
Eng |
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German gov’t supports bill to put Georgia on the safe country list |
Eng |
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The August war - Foreign Ministries of different countries spread announcements supporting Georgia |
Eng |
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Angela Merkel’s visit to Georgia on the 10th anniversary of the August war is symbolic - Ambassador of Georgia to Germany |
Eng |
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| Mamuka Bakhtadze meets with Janos Herman. A Prime Minister of Georgia met with the EU Ambassador to Georgia Janos Herman, who ends his term in the country. The sides discussed an agenda of the Georgia-EU relations and talked about progress achieved. | Rustavi 2 |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Georgia tries to reduce asylum seekers from the country to Europe |
Eng |
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| Georgian government welcomes Germany‘s proposal to put Georgia on safe country list | Agenda.ge |
Eng |
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Research institutes |
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NDI research states that favorable attitudes towards NATO and EU integration is increased in Georgia |
Geo |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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Int’l Organization for Migration: Number of Georgian asylum seekers in EU decreasing |
Eng |
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| Georgia marks a day of fighting against trafficking | Rustavi 2 |
Eng |
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KYRGYZSTAN |
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Migration issues and challenges |
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Kyrgyz migrants should acquire profession in home country. Interview with director of a large international company for interaction with state and public structures in Russia and the CIS |
Rus |
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nfluence of remittances to the real estate prices in Kyrgyzstan. Infographics |
Rus |
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MOLDOVA |
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EU Cooperation |
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EU freezes aid to Moldova as row over mayoral election festers |
Eng |
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| Moldova's commitment to European integration into question | blogs.lse.ac.uk |
Eng |
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| EU aid suspension for Moldova | rferl.org |
Eng |
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| Payment of the first installment of the EU assistance, suspended. EU announced it had frozen a 100 million euro aid package to Moldova after a disputed mayoral election race in the capital Chisinau which critics say undermined the country’s democratic credentials | trm.md |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Anti-government protesters upset over alleged corruption and a disputed election |
Eng |
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| Massive protests against the Democratic Party-led government. | rferl.org |
Eng |
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| More than 1,200 enterprises have been funded through the PARE 1 + 1 "Remittances in Economy". The Pare 1+1 for the years 2010-2018 is intended for migrant workers or first-degree relatives who want to invest in initiating or expanding a small business | trm.md |
Eng |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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OSCE mission concerned about security zone in separatist area Transnistria |
Eng |
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NGOs dealing with Migration |
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Will a Global Magnitsky Act help Moldova? Legislative initiative to align Moldova to the Global Magnitsky Act was registered which aims to prevent suspected individuals connected to large-scale money laundering, corruption, or human rights abuses from entering Moldova, access its banking system, or apply for its citizenship, and pledges to confiscate their assets if they can be traced to illicit activities. |
emerging-europe.com | Eng | ||
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Research institutes |
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Moldova’s European integration is affected by government’s artificiality towards EU, opinion – study |
Eng |
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Migration issues and challenges |
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EU adopt prescreening for visa free regime |
Eng |
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| DOR program participants visited Moldovan parliament. The DOR program is organized each year in August and gathers 80 diaspora from different countries and 20 young people from Moldova. The purpose of the camp is to strengthen the emotional, cultural and identity ties of the diaspora youth with the native country. | moldpres.md |
Eng |
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| More than $115 million sent to Moldova from abroad in July | trm.md |
Eng |
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| More than 100 children from the diaspora gathered at the "DOR" camp. National programs for children from Moldovan diaspora. | trm.md |
Eng |
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| Diaspora Congress in Chisinau organized. 150 representatives of diaspora gathered in Chisinau. | tribuna.md |
Eng |
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Migrant stories |
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Survey: 12% of Moldovans say they have returned home from abroad and do not intend to go back. Migrations trends and statistics regarding return migration |
Eng |
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| Representative of Diaspora: government wants those who left not to return home | tribuna.md |
Eng |
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UKRAINE |
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EU Cooperation |
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Coordination Council has been established to inform about European integration |
Rus |
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Zubko: 70 regional projects funded by EU to be implemented in Ukraine |
Eng |
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EU gives Ukraine EUR 15.5 mln to improve public administration |
Eng |
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EU Programme sums up 15 years of Cross-Border Cooperation Between Poland, Belarus and Ukraine |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Ukraine will face influx of migrants - State Border Service |
Ukr |
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In the Kharkiv region, irregular migration channel has been eliminated |
Ukr |
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Migrant' special operation to continue until Sept |
Eng |
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Border Guard Service of Ukraine seeks to modernize ships, boats, buy new ones for maritime border guard |
Eng |
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During two weeks in Ukraine, more than a thousand of irregular migrants were identified. |
Rus |
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Government will allocate UAH 105.98 million for improvements of the border crossing point at the administrative border with the occupied Crimea |
Ukr |
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Registered 1 518 283 IDPs in Ukraine |
Ukr |
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The Instruction on Implementing a National Mechanism of assessment of Integrated Border Management in Ukraine was presented in the Administration of SBGSU |
Eng |
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A working group for integration of Roma people has been established. The working group comprised of representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, National Police, State Migration Service, National Academy of Internal Affairs, Council of Europe Office in Ukraine, Ministry of Social Policy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture, State Security Service, Kyiv City Administration, Roma NGOs. |
Ukr |
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Over 3 million biometric passports issued to Ukrainians this year |
Eng |
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Border guards eliminated irregular migration channel from Ukraine to Poland |
Rus |
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Ukrainian government approves plan for implementing migration policy strategy |
Eng |
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Border crossing point on the Moldovan-Ukrainian border will be connected to the Odessa-Reni highway |
eapmigrationpanel.org |
Eng |
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In 2018 Ukrainian border guards identified more than 1400 irregular migrants |
eapmigrationpanel.org |
Eng |
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Two Ukrainians are suspected of illegally transporting 71 migrants to Italy |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
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IOs and Missions dealing with Migration |
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IDPs’ average income is one third lower than Ukraine’s national subsistence level |
Eng |
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National monitoring system report on the situation of internally displaced persons. IOM, MSP, MTOT, June 2018 |
Eng |
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Active youth from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts will learn about safe migration, human trafficking prevention, diversity and tolerance. Youth Summer School for active youth from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts |
Eng |
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The maze runner: IOM Ukraine raises awareness and informs Ukrainians about the dangers of human trafficking. ‘The Maze of Risks and Opportunities’, installed not only in the capital, but in every regional centre of Ukraine, provides the opportunity to participate in a thematic quest. Getting into the maze, the visitors have to find the way out, and, moreover, to find the way how to avoid possible risks that may lead to getting into the situation of human trafficking. All scenarios are based on real recruitment stories. |
Eng |
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Polish National Revenue Administration visited EUBAM |
Eng |
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EUBAM together with its Partner Services look for opportunity to invigorate the inter-agency mobile units |
eubam.org |
Eng |
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Migration issues and challenges |
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In Lithuania, the number of Ukrainian immigrants has increased. There are currently 54 393 foreign born residents out of whom 15 291 are citizens of Ukraine (55.4% greater than last year). |
Ukr |
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| Ukraine as a transit route for irregular migrants to Europe | unian.ua |
Ukr |
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| Since the end of March 377 thousand emigrants left Ukraine - Ukrainianpeopleleaks. For statistics data articulated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavel Klimkin was used. | obozrevatel.com |
Rus |
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| Remittances sent to Ukraine increased by one third - National Bank of Ukraine | finance.liga.net |
Rus |
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| Labour migrants abroad transfer almost USD 10 billion a year to Ukraine | 112.ua |
Rus |
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| Labour migration to Poland turns into emigration | realist.online |
Rus |
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| Migration: Ukrainians massively buy up housing in Poland | etcetera.media |
Rus |
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| About 200 thousand Ukrainians received Pole's cards - the ambassador | hromadske.ua |
Ukr |
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| Most Ukrainians in Poland are ready to move to Germany if they open the labour market | pravda.com.ua |
Ukr |
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| Poland admitted economy growth by virtue of labour migrants from Ukraine | rbc.ua |
Rus |
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| Labour migration slows down economic growth in Ukraine - the National Bank of Ukraine. According to the National Bank's inflation report. | epravda.com.ua |
Ukr |
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| The National Bank expects an increase of remittances to Ukraine. Due to the growth of labour migration. | rbc.ua |
Rus |
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| Migration from Ukraine could be a threat to country's future economic prosperity - Danylyshyn | ukrinform.net | Eng | ||
| Minister of Social Policy said 10 million Russian labour migrants could come to Ukraine. | dialog.ua | Rus | ||
| About 9 mln Ukrainians migrate abroad every year for seasonal work | ukrinform.net | Eng | ||
Migrant Stories |
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Paid with meals: Ukrainian national has been trafficked to Kazakhstan |
styler.rbc.ua | Rus | ||
Mobility |
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Ukraine to provide long-term visas for Estonians for free |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
Ukraine and Serbia to increase the period of visa-free stay from 30 to 90 days within 180 days |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine changed border crossing rules for minors |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
Over one million Ukrainians already enjoy EU visa-free regime |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
Ukraine offers Moldova to build bridge across Dniester |
ukrinform.net | Eng | ||
In the first half of 2018 foreigners visited Ukraine more than 6 million times |
eapmigrationpanel.org | Eng | ||
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Other |
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Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Yezhel gets refugee status in Belarus – counterintelligence |
Eng |
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Ukraine’s population decreased by about 123 thousand people in first half of 2018. In the first half of 2018, the population of Ukraine decreased by 123 thousand people, and as of July 1 it amounted to 42.263,900 people. |
Eng |
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Ukrainians will get the opportunity to send remittances from Europe without paying commission |
Eng |
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UZBEKISTAN |
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EU Cooperation |
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The EU and the countries of Central Asia held their High-level Political and Security Dialogue |
Eng |
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Uzbekistan: EU to open negotiations on new comprehensive agreement |
Eng |
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BOMCA: Kazakhstan hosts the 3rd Conference of Regional Cooperation in the field of Border Security |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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President signs law “On Countering Extremism” |
Eng |
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Uzbekistan to allocate USD 26 mln for establishing Migrant Support Foundation |
news.tj |
Rus |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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The UNODC Border Liaison Offices Support Profiling Training for Border Guards of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan |
Eng |
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IBM I2 Intelligence Analysis Software: Improving Skills of Law Enforcement Officers in Central Asia |
Eng |
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The Power of Magnet: The UNODC Border Liaison Offices support information campaign on the borders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan |
Eng |
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UNODC Continues Supporting Counter-Narcotics Interagency Mobile Teams in Uzbekistan: Training on Improving Search, Inspection and Profiling Skills |
Eng |
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UNODC and Uzbekistan Cooperate to Bring Penal Legislation in Line with International Standards |
Eng |
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Mobility |
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Uzbekistan launches a system for issuing electronic entry visas (e-visa.gov.uz) |
Eng |
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Over 2,780 foreign citizens applied to electronic visa via website e-visa.gov.uz |
Eng |
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Other |
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Uzbekistan – Kazakhstan negotiations on demarcation of the state border |
Eng |
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Meeting of working groups of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan |
Eng |
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| President ratifies agreement on the border with Tajikistan |
Eng |
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70 border violators detained in June |
Rus |
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Meeting of working groups of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in Fergana |
Eng |
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Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan discuss delimitation and demarcation of borders |
Eng |
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Uzbekistan and Tajikistan hold joint border exercises |
Eng |
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WESTERN BALKANS & TURKEY |
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EU Cooperation |
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UK hosts 5th Western Balkans Summit |
Eng |
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Frontex publishes analyses for the Western Balkans in 2017 and 1st quarter of 2018 |
Eng |
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EU begins screening Macedonia, Albania for mid-2019 accession talks |
Eng |
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ALBANIA
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EU Cooperation |
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EU Comission financed border crossing Morine - Kukes inaugurated |
Alb |
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Foreign Minister Bushati: Migration crisis is a European crisis and demands a European response |
Eng |
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Western Balkans PMs discuss next EU integration steps at informal meeting in Albania |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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President passes a law that formalizes teaching of the Albanian language in diaspora |
Eng |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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OSCE supports visit of border officials from Albania and Montenegro to Tajikistan |
Eng |
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Frontex: Migratory pressure on Albania is growing |
Eng |
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BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
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EU Cooperation |
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Additional €6 million from the European Commission to BiH for migration management |
Eng |
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Czech Republic donates €1 million to BiH for modernizing border protection |
Bos |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Online platform for registration of aliens in BiH "E-Stranac" becomes operational |
Eng |
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Federation of BiH Tax Administration calls for taxation of remittances |
Bos |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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Minister of Security meets USAID Director to discuss migration and deradicalization |
Bos |
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CEB provides IOM with a €1 million grant for a reception facility in Bosnia and Herzegovina |
Eng |
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Migrant stories |
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Migrant influx stirs fresh tensions in Bosnia |
Eng |
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Diaspora & Development: Harvard educated young woman returns to BiH to start a business |
balkans.aljazeera.net |
Bos |
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Other |
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| Research project "Mapping the Bosnian Diaspora" published in English and Bosnian | Eng | |||
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KOSOVO |
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EU Cooperation |
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European Commission Confirms Kosovo Qualifies For Visa-Free Travel In Europe |
Eng |
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President Thaçi met with the Austrian Chancellor Kurz, Commissioner Hahn and President Vučić |
Eng |
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FYR MACEDONIA |
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EU Cooperation |
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FYR Macedonia allows European Border and Coast Guard to be deployed on its territory |
Eng |
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OSCE/ODIHR to deploy 270 observers to monitor name referendum |
Eng |
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MONTENEGRO |
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EU Cooperation |
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Montenegrin PM meets with Angela Merkel to discuss EU accession and migration |
Ger |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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| Montenegro deploys military to border with Albania |
Eng |
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| Montenegro to open its "Citizenship by Investment" Program by October 1st 2018 |
Eng |
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SERBIA
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Vice-PM of Serbia meets Interior Minister of Turkey to discuss security cooperation |
Srb |
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40 refugee families in Sremska Mitrovica receive keys to a new home |
Eng |
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Serbia, Montenegro sign cross-border agreements |
Eng |
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Kosovo's President, Belgrade Willing To Consider Border Changes |
Eng |
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IOs dealing with Migration |
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UNHCR Serbia Snapshot - July 2018 |
Eng |
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Other |
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EU Funded 2-day pottery workshop held in migrant camp Obrenovac |
Srb |
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TURKEY |
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EU Cooperation |
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Switzerland Funds UN Migration Agency to Expand Migration Monitoring Program in Turkey |
Eng |
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EU Facility for Refugees in Turkey: EUR 400 million Special Measure on education adopted |
Eng |
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Turkey's Directorate General for Migration Management performs a study visit to Sweden (MIND) |
Eng |
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State Bodies dealing with Migration |
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Inauguration of the Honorary Consulate of Serbia in Antalya, Turkey |
Eng |
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