Ministry of Justice comes out in support of a special migration body

The Ministry of Justice has just posted a statement on its official website in which it supports the creation of a separate central authority in the area of migration.

This followed the latest suspension by the President on 30 July of (the latest) Cabinet of Ministers Resolution which entrusted the Ministry of Internal Affairs [MIA] with implementing State policy on migration.  The Resolution would have also taken the State Department on Citizenship, Immigration and Registration of Individuals which functions within the MIA system as a government body and renamed it the State Department of the Migration Service.

The Ministry of Justice considers that the proposed changes do not fully fulfil the task of establishing one central body in charge of all functions in the area of migration, and that some functions remain dispersed among several executive bodies, for example, the Ministry of Employment and Social Policy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Administration of the State Border Guard Service, and so forth.

The Ministry of Justice also points out that it had offered the following comments on the Resolution which the President has suspended.

1)  the Law “On the overall structure and numbers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs” sets out the overall structure of the MIA, but does not allow for the functioning within the MIA structure of temporary accommodation centres for refugees;

2)  Articles 6 and 7 of the Law “On refugees” assigns authority specifically to a specially authorized central executive body on matters of migration and of migration service offices in the Crimea, regions, Kyiv and Sevastopol as a separate system of bodies implementing as authorized legislation on refugees.

Therefore, in the view of the Ministry of Justice, in order to resolve the problems which have accumulated in this area, the legal mechanisms for regulating relations in the area of migration must be improved and a centralized body created with its functions and power being defined in accordance with the Constitution and laws of the country