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Information on
monitoring missions at border crossing points
In the context of the project, “On
respecting the rights of emigrants and returned
persons,” during 28- 30 September 2006, AHC organized a
series of monitoring missions at the three main border
crossing points with Greece, namely at the Border
Crossing of Kapshticė (Korēė), Tre Urat (Pėrmet), and
Kakavijė (Gjirokastėr).
After observing the facilities where
persons returned by Greek police were received and
interviewed, AHC representatives conducted several
meetings with senior Border Crossing Points officials.
According to received information, Greek
police sent back a considerable number of Albanian
clandestine individuals (an average of 150 persons were
returned on a daily basis), and there were days when
this number reached up to 190 returned individuals. All
returned individuals had expired visas or no visas at
all; almost all possessed no proper documentation.
With regard to persons possessing proper
documentation, AHC representatives did not encounter any
problems.
During the monitoring mission, we noted
an improvement of infrastructure at these border
crossing points. Up to about two months before, persons
returned by Greek police at the Kapshticė Border
Crossing Point were held (and even interviewed) in the
corridor of the border crossing building. The place was
not appropriate at all for reception, let alone for
interviewing. During the later monitoring mission,
returnees were placed in the SOG (Specialized
Operational Group) section facilities, just minutes from
the border crossing point.
After the installation of the TIMS system
at the border crossing, police identified all data of
returned persons and kept appropriate notes on those
individuals that appeared with problems.
At this facility, returnees were
interviewed on their identity, the way they had crossed
the border, the way they had been caught by Greek
police, and on whether Greek police had maltreated them.
Persons who were identified completely were released on
the spot, at the facility.
In spite of improvements at police
commissariats’ facilities, conditions in which returned
persons were kept left much to be desired. The procedure
envisioned that inspectors of this commissariat
contacted by telephone the respective commissariats that
covered the areas from where the returnees were from in
order to confirm their identities. However, the timeline
for verifying data allowed for abuse due to the
not-so-fast functioning of communication between police
directories of the different districts.
There were no women police officers at
the border crossing points who could question women
returnees, which could be clandestine emigrants, but
might even be victims of trafficking in human beings.
AHC suggests that Interior Ministry
authorities sanction through a special instruction the
time allowed for conducting identity verifications on
persons returned by police, in order to disallow abuse.
There have been cases when returnees have been waiting
at police commissariat facilities for hours in a row (up
to ten hours) for confirmation from the respective
commissariats.
AHC also suggests that border crossing
police staff be completed with women officers in order
to improve the standards of service.
You may contact Mr. Andi Pipero, Project
Coordinator, for more information on the results of the
monitoring missions.
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