This annual report reflects important achievements and contributions of the Social Action Centre/No Borders Project during 2011.

Download full version (PDF): here.

Kyiv (Ukraine) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees continues to be concerned about the situation of a Kyrgyz national who was denied access to Ukrainian territory in Boryspil airport where she arrived by the flight from Kazakhstan on 29 March 2012.

Statement of the international transborder meeting in Turkey, made on March 18, 2012 in front of Edirne detention centre

Kyiv (Ukraine) – The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has noted that on 3 March 2012 European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ordered Ukrainian authorities in response to a petition to the Court under Rule 39 that 3 stowaways on the ship docked at Mykolayiv seaport (2 from Eritrea, 1 from Ethiopia) should be allowed to disembark from the vessel and be granted access to asylum procedure to exercise their right to seek asylum.

Further information on UA: 29/12 Index: EUR 50/002/2012 Ukraine Date: 22 February 2012

URGENT ACTION

detained asylum-seekers stop hunger strike

The strike, held in protest by the group of Somali asylum-seekers and migrants, against their illegal detention and alleged ill-treatment, lasted for six weeks. The strike was halted by the group on 17 February after they received assurances from the State Migration Service that their asylum applications would be considered.

UNHCR is relieved to hear that the hunger strikes have ended at both detention centres in the Volyn and Chernigiv regions of Ukraine. The detainees, including many asylum-seekers and minors, were protesting against the length of their detention and demanded that the authorities consider their asylum claims in compliance with international standards.

To: President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych

Head of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, Mykola Kovalchuk

Minister of Internal Affairs, Vitaliy Zakharchenko

General Prosecutor of Ukraine, Viktor Pshonka

Head of the Human Rights Committee of Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,

Oleh Zarubynskiy

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights,

Nina Karpachova

Copy to: Office of the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights,

Delegation of the European Union to Ukraine,

UNHCR Regional Representation for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine

The media

17 February 2012

Ukrainian Refugee Council received from Somali nationals, detained in Migrants' temporary detention centres, an appeal to the Ukrainian Government, which it considers necessary to make public. The text of the appeal follows:

A group of activists came with this message on 13 February 2012 to the State Migration Service and Ministry of Interior of Ukraine in Kyiv. Protest was organized by No Borders Project of “Social Action Centre” NGO. Protesters declared support to detained Somali refugees, who demand from Ukrainian authorities to regularize their status in Ukraine.

6 February 2012

The Ukrainian Refugee Council (URC) has requested that Ukrainian authorities immediately grant URC member organizations access to migrants detained in Zhuravychi Migrants Accommodation Centre (Volyn region).

Source: Human Rights Watch site

(Moscow, February 1, 2012) - The Ukrainian authorities should immediately stop police harassment and threats against Somali asylum seekers held at the Zhuravychi Migrant Accommodation Centre, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter sent to the Ukrainian authorities, Human Rights Watch also called for the immediate release of all Somali asylum seekers who are being held in administrative detention pending deportation.

by the Social Action Centre/No Borders Project

authors' collective:

Halyna Bocheva/No Borders Project Lawyer

Olena Bondarenko/ No Borders Project Assistant

Inna Kholondovych/ No Borders Project Legal Intern

Study by Demos thinktank reveals thousands of self-declared followers of hardline nationalist parties and groups

Source: Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor, guardian.co.uk, Sunday 6 November 2011

Strasbourg, 16.06.2011 - Racism and intolerance are becoming rooted in European societies as the economic crisis gives strength to extremist messages, warns Europe's leading anti-racist body today.

Ethnic profiling—the use of racial, ethnic, or religious characteristics as a way of singling people out for police or security checks. In the United States, debate over its fairness and effectiveness has raged for years. In the United Kingdom, it's in the headlines.

In most of the rest Europe, it's a different story. Despite its widespread use by police forces and the festering resentment in affected communities, ethnic profiling is rarely examined; aside from the UK, no European government collects information on the ethnicity of those stopped by police.

But the Open Society Justice Initiative has documented the prevalence and impact of profiling in Europe, assembling evidence that shows it is not only unfair, but an ineffectual way of fighting crime.

The first step in the case on fight for the rights of the foreign students.

A Paris court is due begin hearing a highly unusual libel suit against the French news website Rue89 tomorrow. It has been brought by Lola Karimova, the high-profile daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, over an article describing her as a “dictator’s daughter” who was using charity events to try to “whitewash her country’s image.”

IZMIR Declaration

27 April 2011

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

International Religious Freedom Report 2010

November 17, 2010

Domain name: .uz

Population: 27.8 millions

Internet users: 6.626 millions

Average cost for a one-hour cybercafé connection : 0.35 U.S. dollar

Average monthly salary : 289 U.S. dollars

Number of imprisoned netizens: 0

Activists and friends of Uzbekistan’s civil society call for a review of this decision and for a boycott of Uzbek cotton and textiles.