2010 Peer Review Report by Hartikainen Frontiers Trabzon
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1 Central level (EUSG, MoI, Coast Guard), Trabzon Airport and Seaport, eastern border with Georgia, western borders with Bulgaria and Greece – Expert Col (BG) Antti Hartikainen / Border Guard of Finland PEER REVIEW MISSION TO TURKEY (JHA IND/EXP 42920) 6 – 10 DEC 2010 1. Introduction At the central level, all the three border management experts assigned for the mission (Mr. Hartikainen, Mr. Karohl and Mr. Gaya van Stijn) with all the accompanied personnel from the EU Commission and the EU Delegation to Turkey had a common programme in Ankara. At the beginning, a preparatory meeting was organised with the EU Secretariat General. Subsequently, a meeting took place with the Ministry of the Interior Integrated Border Management (IBM) Bureau. Representatives of the General Directorate of Security (Turkish National Police, Department of Aliens, Borders and Asylum Affairs), General Staff, Land Forces Command, Gendarmerie General Command, Coast Guard Command, and Turkish Customs Enforcement also were present in both of the aforementioned meetings. At the end of the central level programme, a visit was made to the Coast Guard Command. During the field visit, the expert was familiarised with the Trabzon airport and seaport on the shore of the Black Sea, Sarp Border Crossing Point (BCP) on the border with Georgia, Kapıkule BCP on the border with Bulgaria, Pazarkule BCP on the border with Greece and Edirne Removal Centre located to the close proximity to the last two aforementioned BCPs. Moreover, two Deputy Governors joined the trip in their respective Areas of Responsibility on the eastern and western borders and a meeting was held with the Governor in Edirne and the Deputy Governor in Trabzon. Moreover, representatives of the National Police and Customs were briefly interviewed while performing own duties. Even though introduction to the green border surveillance on the border with Georgia and Greece was included in the programme, it did not take place in practice. On the border with Georgia, local commander of the Land Forces was present at the Sarp BCP, but introduction of the green border surveillance was limited to a short discussion on this topic with him. During the visit to the border with Greece, no representative of the Land Forces was present. Throughout the aforementioned tour, the expert was accompanied by Mr. Francois Naucodie (DG ELARG), representatives from the EU Secretariat General and the Ministry of the Interior IBM Bureau and an interpreter. Ms. Burce Ari/EU Delegation accompanied the expert in Trabzon and at the Sarp BCP. Already during the preparation phase a huge amount of relevant written information was provided for the expert on the topics covered in the visit and, in fact, it was a great challenge to process all of it. Previous Peer Review missions have been implemented in 2006 and 2008 and several other recent assessment reports, like Gap Analysis Report for the Preparation of Border Surveillance Area and EU Commission Turkey Progress Report, both issued in 2010, are available. For this reason, this report is aimed to focus mostly on the strategic level findings and details are taken on board only upon detection of significant changes and in cases when the previous reports fail to cover some relevant information. Therefore, it is recommended to read this report in conjunction with the aforementioned previous reports. 2 The programme of the field visit covering enormous geographical area was very tight even with consideration of the fact that the green border surveillance was actually not included in the programme as being foreseen. For this reason, it is recommended to ensure in the future that for every location to be visited there would be enough time to monitor how the counterparts implement their duties in practice and to have discussions with the counterparts, as well as to avoid excessively long working days for the experts. Logistics and field visit were organised very well and the hospitality provided for the delegation was outstanding at all the locations. Significant amount of Turkish authorities at the central level were able to communicate in English, which was highly appreciated. At the regional level, English language skills are still a challenge. 2. Development of National Integrated Border Management Strategy and Action Plan National Action Plan for implementation of Turkey’s IBM Strategy Action Plan has been approved already on 27 March 2006. Since then the progress in this domain has been rather slow till the beginning of 2010, but after that is has significantly speeded up. In May 2010 an IBM Coordination Board to the Ministry of the Interior (MoI) was established. The members of this Coordination Board are high level representatives from General Staff, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Transportation and Communication, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Gendarmerie General Command, Under Secretariat of Customs, Under Secretariat of Maritime Affairs, Secretariat General for EU Affairs, Security General Directorate, Coast Guard Command and General Directorate of Provincial Administration with an authority to decide on behalf of their institutions. There is no doubt that this Board, which has already given a significant boost with regard to the development of the IBM strategy, will be also a great asset in implementation thereof. The IBM Bureau of the MoI has been drafting a roadmap for IBM. During the Peer Review mission it was found out that the IBM Bureau has been using the 2007 IBM Guidelines for Western Balkans as a basis for their work and for this reason the draft document is based on the old IBM concept with three pillars vs. the five-dimension IBM concept from 2006. After the request of the IBM Bureau the expert has with the assistance of DG Home Border Management Expert provided further clarification of the 2006 IBM concept and validity of the aforementioned guidelines. The basic message is that the current Guidelines for Western Balkans are not a valid reference document due to the fact that, e.g. those deal merely with co-operation aspects, the latest developments in the field of EU border management are not taken into account, a lot of information is outdated, those are not EU Guidelines approved by the Commission and are not fully in line with the EU approach taking into consideration also Customs' issues. According to Conclusions of the Council provided in December 2006, the EU IBM is a concept consisting of the following dimensions: • Border control (checks and surveillance) as defined in the Schengen Borders Code, including relevant risk analysis and crime intelligence; • Detection and investigation of cross border crime in coordination with all competent law enforcement authorities; • The four-tier access control model (measures in third countries, cooperation with neighboring countries, border control, control measures within the area of free movement, including return); 3 • Inter-agency cooperation for border management (border guards, customs, police, national security and other relevant authorities) and international cooperation; • Coordination and coherence of the activities of Member States and Institutions and other bodies of the Community and the Union. Updated Schengen Cataloque (External Borders Control, Removal and Readmission: Recommendations and Best Practices) issued in 2009 has been drafted following the new IBM concept. For this reason, it is recommended to follow the structure of the Cataloque also in the IBM Road Map. A proposal for the structure (index) of the IBM Road Map is introduced in Annex 1. IBM trainings efforts have been intensified in 2010. IBM trainings have been conducted for the most of the deputy governors and a presentation about the IBM was delivered to a group of Turkish Land Forces officers involved in border surveillance. In addition, Deputy undersecretary (MoI), officials from IBM Bureau and one representative from Land Forces participated in the TAIEX study tour in Finland in order to learn how the Finnish border management authorities are implementing the IBM. Taking into account the enormous number of officials to be trained for the IBM, Turkish authorities should consider elaboration of a comprehensive training plan and focus on training for trainers approach. It is of utmost importance to enhance the knowledge of the IBM concept and Road Map at all levels. The Turkish border management authorities will benefit significantly from the projects on “Integrated Border Management Action Plan Phase-1 and Phase-2”. Phase-1 includes a Twinning Project which has started with Hungary- UK consortium in May 2010 (1.200.000 €) and two technical assistance projects, of which the first has started in October 2010 (4.4000.000 €). The second project (850.000 €) has been already implemented in March - October 2010 and, as a result, Gap Analysis, Risk Assessment, Technical Analysis, Need Assessment and Feasibility Study Reports were produced. In addition, Phase-1 includes supply of 4.513.000 €, for which a tender is expected to be approved by the EU Delegation. Phase-2 includes a Twinning Project with Finland for the development of Risk Analysis System. This Twinning Project (1.400.000€) will start in January 2011. In addition Phase-2 includes significant supply (27.400.000€) and currently elaboration of technical specifications for this supply are ongoing. In addition to the aforementioned, a 24-month Twinning Project for Strengthening IBM in the Western Balkans and Turkey (1.631.694 €) has started in 2009 with the participation of Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and Turkey. Recommendations: - to follow the EU IBM concept structure in the IBM Road Map and as much as possible also in the other relevant documents related to border management development (proposal for the IBM Road Mad structure is introduced in the Annex 1) - to enhance the awareness of the governors and all the relevant border management authorities at the local level about the IBM and reform plans 4 3.