{"id":3160378,"date":"2022-06-14T10:34:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T10:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/safeguarding-the-rights-of-people-on-the-move\/"},"modified":"2022-06-14T10:34:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T10:34:22","slug":"safeguarding-the-rights-of-people-on-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/safeguarding-the-rights-of-people-on-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Safeguarding the rights of people on the move"},"content":{"rendered":"\nWith the support of the European Union, a Montenegrin NGO has supported migrants with free legal services.\r\n\r\n

Irfan* is a 30-year-old originally from Morocco but he says of his home country, \u201cHuman rights were not being respected, there were no jobs: the economy was weak. Everything was bad!\u201d. He fled Morocco in 2011, first going to Turkey, using a regular flight. He soon had to leave that country and then had his first contact with smugglers. They transferred him to Greece, and then to Albania, until he eventually arrived in Montenegro. \u201cMy life was in the hands of smugglers. They could have done anything they wanted with me; I didn\u2019t have any say. I arrived in Montenegro tired of running away and I didn\u2019t have the strength to continue further,\u201d Irfan adds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Irfan has now been living in Montenegro for over 10 years. Quite soon after arriving, he got a job at a hotel, where he fell in love with a Montenegrin called Jovana*. They are now married and have two beautiful children. In the meantime, Irfan also learned the Montenegrin language and, in many ways, felt fully integrated into the society of his new home. However, this was not the case from the legal point of view. He had the right to apply for Montenegrin citizenship, but due to legal complications and the fact that certain laws are in conflict with each other, he is still unable to exercise that right. In order to solve this problem, he knocked on the door of the Montenegrin NGO Legal Centre, which provides legal aid to foreigners seeking asylum in Montenegro through an EU-funded project called \u201cMy Lawyer \u2013 Free and Professional Legal Aid for Migrants\u201d in cooperation with Caritas. Now he is receiving legal aid from them on this matter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\u201cBecause the number of migrants who want to stay in Montenegro is small, the government does not have a policy for their integration in terms of education and employment.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n

Free legal services for those in need <\/strong><\/p>\n

Luka Kova\u010devi\u0107 is the Director of the Legal Centre NGO which was founded in 2007 with the aim of supporting displaced persons and refugees from the wars in the former Yugoslavia. Back then, Montenegro did not have even the basic legal infrastructure related to asylum seekers, and no government plan for providing support for asylum-seekers or displaced persons. Luka and his team initially worked on supporting the government in overcoming these obstacles and the government introduced the legal infrastructure that has been in place since then.<\/p>\n

However, in the meantime, migrants from other parts of the world started to arrive in Montenegro, and they needed support. According to the statistics of the Legal Centre NGO, over 95% of the refugees in the country are using Montenegro as a transit route, and only a small number of them decide to stay, as most of them aim for countries with better economic prospects. But those who do remain need support. Luka explains that the government does not have much to offer them. \u201cBecause the number of migrants who want to stay in Montenegro is small, the government does not have a policy for their integration in terms of education and employment,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Providing support to these migrants and others who see Montenegro only as a transit route is the reason why Lukas\u2019 NGO launched the EU-funded project \u201cMy Lawyer \u2013 Free and Professional Legal Aid for Migrants\u201d in cooperation with Caritas.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\u201cWe made over 146 field visits: we were in all Montenegrin municipalities, visiting and supporting migrants in formal and informal gathering spots. The migrants we supported last year came from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Morocco, and beyond.\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n\r\n

About the project <\/strong><\/p>\n

The EU-funded project \u201cMy Lawyer \u2013 Free and Professional Legal Aid for Migrants\u201d,\u00a0was launched at the beginning of 2020 and ended in July 2021. The total financial value of the project was over \u20ac130,000. The project aimed to safeguard the rights of different categories of migrants through the provision of legal aid, information and counselling, humanitarian aid and psychosocial support, as well as working on strengthening the capacities of local civil society organisations and relevant institutions to pursue policies relating to migration management, the integration of foreigners granted international protection and the reintegration of returnees upon readmission.<\/p>\n

*<\/em>Name changed to protect privacy<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n

Through this project, 677 beneficiaries received support, from irregular migrants and people seeking international protection in Montenegro, to returnees returning based on readmission agreements. In addition to free legal aid, 350 humanitarian aid packages were distributed to migrants. \u201cWe had over 146 field visits: we were in all Montenegrin municipalities, visiting and supporting migrants in formal and informal gathering spots. The migrants we supported last year came from Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Morocco, and beyond,\u201d says Luka<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the support of the European Union, a Montenegrin NGO has supported migrants with free legal services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3160379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[694],"tags":[],"area-of-cooperation":[410,409],"country":[248],"opportunity-type":[],"class_list":["post-3160378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","area-of-cooperation-employment-and-inclusion","area-of-cooperation-rule-of-law-security-and-migration","country-montenegro"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSafeguarding the rights of people on the move - WeBalkans<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/webalkans.eu\/en\/safeguarding-the-rights-of-people-on-the-move\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Safeguarding the rights of people on the move - 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