During 20-21 October, the Ombudsman Office, in coordination with the Moldovan Bureau for Migration and Asylum, carried out the first forced return monitoring mission in country’s history. Forced-return monitoring aims to ensure human rights compliance during the removal operations with a view to increase transparency and accountability.
Moldova has only recently embarked on building a national forced-return monitoring system and, with the support of ICMPD, has been working towards developing its legislative and procedural framework in this regards. The objective of this coordinated operation was to practice these new procedures and pilot the very first forced return monitoring mission of Moldova. The returnee is a national of Uzbekistan who breached the stay regime of Moldova and, after refusing to depart voluntarily, has been issued a removal order.
The role of the assigned forced-return monitor was to observe whether the return operation is conducted in a humane manner, respectful of the dignity of the returnee, and in compliance with human rights. After the mission, the monitor will produce a report documenting any possible violations, lessons learned and recommendations to further develop the country’s forced return monitoring system.
The project “Capacity for a Rights-Based Reception System for Moldova” (CareFor), funded by the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration, aims to contribute to a functioning and human-rights compliant migration management system in Moldova. Among others, CareFor builds upon the progress achieved in the preceding FReMM project, and continues supporting the Ombudsman Office with carrying out the monitoring missions.
More information on the CareFor project can be found here.