Training Academy

Anna has worked in the field of asylum since 1988 at the Swedish Migration Agency, in reception as well as in refugee status determination, for UNHCR in Asia and at the Migration Court of Stockholm for seven years where she headed the training in asylum law and trained nationally at the Judicial Academy. She holds a Master of Laws and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science (international politics). She has been a trainer nationally and internationally in asylum law for 15 years including at the Law Faculty of Uppsala University. Her focus in work has been on interviewing skills and on jurisprudence as part of informed decision making and training.

Judge Judith Gleeson  has over 20 years of experience in migration and asylum law. She has been an Upper Tribunal Judge at the Asylum and Immigration Chamber of the United Kingdom since 2010. In 2014, she was nominated by EASO to advise the Moroccan Government on draft asylum, trafficking and migration laws. She has been chairing the UTIAC Research and Information Committee since 2010 and has been a Judicial Member of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission since 2005. She is a member of the International Association of Refugee Law Judges (IARLJ).

Gabor has been working in the field of asylum since 2000. After two years of working with the UNHCR, he joined the Hungarian Helsinki Committee (www.helsinki.hu), where he currently works as the director of the refugee programme and as an international trainer. Gábor’s research and advocacy work has been mainly focusing on evidentiary and credibility assessment, country information, gender and intercultural issues in asylum cases, as well as nationality and statelessness. He has conducted research and published a number of studies and articles on these issues while also being a reputable international trainer (with hundreds of training sessions conducted to asylum professionals on various continents).

Ms. Silvia Lobonțiu has a Bachelor's degree in law and a Master's degree in criminology and forensic science from "Dimitrie Cantemir" University Bucharest. She is enrolled in the post-graduate program of "Acad. Andrei Rădulescu" Legal Research Institute of the Romanian Academy, conducting research for her PhD  thesis, focusing on illegal migration and criminality. She has worked for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) - Mission in Romania, the Romanian Ombudsman Institution - Department for the Prevention of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (National Prevention Mechanism). Currently she is part of the Romanian National Council for Refugees (CNRR) team in Bucharest. She has over ten years of experience in the field of migration and has been a member of the Frontex pool of forced return monitors since 2017.

Mr. Tony Mihaitoaia graduated from the Romanian Border Police School in 1999, and at the age of 21 started his career at the Border Police. He first worked as a Border Police Officer, conducting border checks at the BCP and coordinating activities of the territorial Border Police Units. As of 2013, Mr. Mihaitoaia was engaged into activities at the EU external borders, performing Schengen evaluations in line with the SchEval Mechanism, and contributing to the development of new Entry/Exit system, as well as the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. In 2016-2018, Mr. Mahaitoaia held an Expert role at the European Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), supporting the development and implementation of the IBM related strategies in Moldova and Ukraine. Since April 2018, he works in ICMPD. In his position of Border Management Specialist, he is responsible for the implementation of border management projects, providing expertise on integrated border management and document security in the countries of Eastern Partnership, Central Asia, Western Balkans, Mediterranean and African regions. 

Mr. Ionut Mihalache graduated at the Law University of Alexandru Ioan Cuza in Iasi, Romania, started his career in the Romanian Border Police at the age of 26 and has since worked as a border guard in various positions. He`s been deployed at several external borders of the EU as an expert in EBCG Agency operations, as specialist on document falsification and detecting stolen cars and screening expert, conducting interviews with irregular migrants at the external EU Borders in Greece and Bulgaria. In 2013, as a Frontex Support Officer, he coordinated at local level the screening activities at the Bulgarian and Greek external borders of EU with Turkey. Since February 2016, he has been seconded by the Romanian Border Police as National Expert to the European Commission, where he is acting as Policy Officer within the Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit of the General Directorate for Migration and Home Affairs.

Mr. Madis Vainomaa is a Project Manager and anti-trafficking expert with the ICMPD. Madis is a lawyer by profession and holds a master’s degree in international business law with altogether over 15 years of professional experience in human rights protection issues, combating trafficking in human beings and irregular migration, protection of rights of refugees and IDPs, monitoring and investigating human rights issues, conducting human rights assessments, reporting and monitoring, improving the institutional capacities to address human rights issues. Before joining the ICMPD Madis worked for a decade with the OSCE in the Western Balkans, followed by a period of five years of independent consultancies with international organisations (UN, OSCE, ILO) on issues of countering human trafficking, including human rights in the context of human trafficking, smuggling of migrants, refugee and displacement issues, in setting up institutional mechanisms to tackle human trafficking (NRM/TRM, state-CSO co-ordination mechanism). He has been conducting field work and assessments on sensitive matters in challenging environments such as in Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine. He has recently completed managing a 3-year EUR 2.9 million EC-funded Project “Fight against Trafficking I Human Beings and Organized Crime, Phase 2”, covering Azerbaijan, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, Turkey, Pakistan. Madis is currently providing expert advice and capacity-building to selected beneficiary countries’ authorities (Western Balkan, Central Asia, Ghana, Jordan) and the civil society in supporting the set-up and improvement of victim-centred NRM. Madis speaks fluent English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and a working level Russian.

Professor Dr. Sergiu Adrian Vasile is working as university professor and PhD coordinator at the Border Police Faculty within the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy in Bucharest, Romania. Dr. Sergiu Adrian Vasile has been working in the field of Border Guard training and education for more than sixteen years for BA and Master Studies and several other research areas applied for border guarding. His training expertise includes but is not limited to Applied Informatics for Border Police in the Schengen Area and Technical Surveillance and Control Systems for Schengen Borders. He is engaged in teaching activities, course design, evaluation and assessment, administering and testing on-line sessions, e-learning strategies committees, curricula development, project management and development, and research activities. He is an active member of editorial board and peer reviewer. His expertise in education, both in teaching and professional development training was also mobilised in international meetings, where he delivered presentations and liaised with European agencies and other partners.

Mr. Rolandas Volskis holds a Master’s degree in EU Law from the Law Faculty (Vilnius) and a BA from the Kaunas Police Faculty of the Mykolas Romeris University. He started his career as a lecturer at the Border Guard School of the State Border Guard Service of Lithuania, while also teaching European and Business Law at the Vilnius Cooperative College and the SMK University of Applied Social Sciences. Since then Mr. Volskis pursued his career at the Border Guard Service, at first carrying out duties as an Investigator, followed by the Senior Specialist position of Border Surveillance Unit, implementing activities at the internal EU borders. In 2018, holding the position of Head of Border Control Unit at the Vilnius Frontier District, Mr. Volskis was responsible for international BCPs, including Vilnius and Kaunas airports, as well as border surveillance operations. In the same year, he was shortly engaged with Frontex as a Reporting Officer. Since November 2018, Mr. Volskis heads the Professional Subject Unit of the Border Guard School in Vilnius. During all these years, educational activities were part and parcel of Mr. Volskis career, with assignments in over 10 countries.