Ashgabat, 30 April 2010 – On April 29-30, 2010 United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Office in Turkmenistan conducted a two – day training for judges and Migration Service Officials of Turkmenistan. The main aim of the training was to advance the knowledge of officials involved in the determination of the status of refugees, and judges who are responsible in the appeal process should an asylum seeker be rejected in the first instance of the asylum process. The training is part of a series of activities UNHCR is undertaking to build the asylum system in Turkmenistan.

The training was conducted by Mr. Florian Newald, judge of the Austrian Asylum Court in Vienna. He covered the history of development of asylum institutions, and described key international instruments dealing with refugee issues. Of specific importance is the easy access to the asylum procedure for all asylum seekers and the principle of  non - refoulement, that no asylum seeker should be rejected at the border.  “Procedural standards for the refugee status determination including standards of admission on the border and guarantees of the possibility of accelerating the procedures for vulnerable cases are all important but the asylum procedure is different from other legal procedures, for example in criminal cases.   Good knowledge and understanding of these procedures and the legal aspects of them is therefore significant for officials dealing with asylum cases in order to be able to make decisions on a fair basis” – underlined Mr. Newald.

“I think that this training was very useful for the participants, because it gave an opportunity not only to enhance their knowledge of international legislation and standards in the refugee field, but also to discuss the use of the legislation in factual case studies from other countries. Based on their knowledge and experience the participants actively took part in the discussion of these case studies elaborating on whether the legislation was practiced correctly in the concrete cases.  The training also helped participants to develop their understanding of the links between refugee law and human rights law as well as the need to have detailed information of the country of origin when processing an asylum claim.” – said Brita Helleland, UNHCR Representative in Turkmenistan.

Fifteen judges of Ashgabat city and Akhal province, and five officials of the State Migration Service of Turkmenistan took part in the training.

For more information, please contact Batyr Sapbiyev, National Protection Officer, at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it