Migration and Border Governance

IOM supports Member States in improving the policy, legislation, operational systems, human resources and administrative and technical structures required to respond more effectively to diverse migration and border management challenges. Migration and Border Management activities are in line with IOM’s commitment to facilitate safe, orderly and regular migration and mobility. These activities are designed as partnerships with governments and other relevant interlocutors to identify needs, determine priority areas, and shape and deliver interventions.

In Ukraine, IOM assists the Government in developing and implementing comprehensive migration and border management policies and practices through strengthening its institutional, technical, operational and human resource capacities. In close collaboration with Ukrainian state authorities entrusted with migration and border management, such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Migration Service, the State Border Guard Service, the State Customs Service, the Office of the Ombudsperson, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as civil society organizations, IOM Ukraine’s Migration and Border Management Unit promotes the implementation of international standards and good practices in Ukraine.

IOM’s programming and activities are centred around working with the state authorities towards strengthening integrated border management in Ukraine in line with the National Integrated Border Management Strategy. IOM helps enhance the required legal and regulatory framework in place, address human resources management and training needs of migration and border management agencies, improve infrastructure, as well as introduce anticorruption measures. IOM’s support also includes digitalization and automation of migration and border management processes in fully compliance with the established data protection principles and building preparedness and response capacities of Ukrainian state authorities for emergency and crisis situations including public health emergencies of international concern.

In 2021, IOM completed the project "Support to Migration and Asylum Management in Ukraine (IMMIS)" supported by the European Union with a financial contribution of EUR 27 million. The project made significant contributions towards improving migration and border management processes in Ukraine, including ensuring document security and identity management in line with best international and EU practices, provision of modern ICT infrastructure and implementation of integrated ICT solutions, and enabling data exchange and information sharing between relevant government agencies as well as the responsible use of biometric data.

Since 2013, IOM has been implementing the European Union Border Assistance Mission to Moldova and Ukraine (EUBAM), which has an advisory and technical support mandate to enhance the border management capacities of the border guard and customs authorities and other state agencies of Moldova and Ukraine. For more information, please visit the EUBAM website: http://eubam.org/en.