An attempt to solve this problem was made by a seminar on the Legal Protection of Refugees organized several days ago by the Ukrainian Legal Foundation jointly with the National Academy of the Internal Affairs, United Nations Office of High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Ukrainian Human Rights Center.
Christopher Bierwirt, Chief Legal Adviser, UNOHCR, believes that international law allows for effective legal protection of political, religious, and racial refugees. At the same time, it is possible to impose restrictions on such migration for economic and other reasons. All this can be achieved by applying the non-deportation principles declared by the UN Geneva Convention, whereby a refugee cannot be sent back to the country which he/she fled for fear of persecution, and non-application of sanctions for illegal border crossing, provided the migrant notifies the authorities of his/her illegal position and applies for the refugee status forthwith.
Mitigating the responsibility for crossing national frontiers, in the UN representative’s opinion, would be a step toward implementing the said convention. In Ukraine, as in Russia, the problem of illegal migration is aggravated by the lack of funds. It is easier for the state to refuse refugee status and send such people on their way to other countries, or apply administrative sanctions, creating a “most unfavored nation status” for every such refugee. Practically, this only serves to strengthen refugee guerrilla warfare.






