More than 30 experts and representatives of institutions in Bosnia and Herzegovina at all levels of authority participated today at the seminar on the access to asylum and international protection where the speakers were representatives of UNHCR, Ministry of Security, Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as judge Boštjan Zalar, President of the European Chapter of the International Association of Refugee and Migration Judges and Senior High Court Judge at the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia.
“Considering the challenges the asylum system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing since the increase of arrivals in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of 2017, UNHCR provides support to all relevant institutions involved in the asylum process. This support includes material and technical assistance as well as professional trainings, which is the goal of today’s seminar, “said Hugues Bissot, UNHCR Senior Protection Officer.
The goal of this event was to enable the exchange of opinions of practitioners on the asylum procedure in mixed migrations, as well as on issues of refugee status and subsidiary protection status, and issues of sur place refugee claims.
Mustafa Pašalić, Acting Assistant Minister of Security for the Sector for Asylum, emphasized that the Ministry is working on harmonizing regulations and practices according to the recommendations of the European Commission. The staffing of the Sector for Asylum is not on a satisfactory level, and with the support of the UNHCR and the European Commission, the Sector for Asylum has a number of additional staff working on registration and interviews with asylum seekers and reviewing and updating country of origin information, however, there is a need to address staffing systematically.
Jadranka Brenjo, Judge of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, praised the seminar and the opportunity to exchange experiences and case law, including the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
“The right to asylum and an effective access to the asylum procedure is not just a technical issue, but it is important that we implement the law that we proclaim, and that we apply in practice the values that we declare,” said Judge Boštjan Zalar, a guest from Slovenia.
Besides exchange of experiences on access to asylum and international protection, today’s event also contributed to networking and connecting the judges from Bosnia and Herzegovina with judges at the European level and wider.
The seminar was organised by the UNHCR Representation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in cooperation with the Public Institution Centre for Judicial and Prosecutorial Training of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Association “Vaša prava BiH”.
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