Contact details

Submitted by: Marina Põldma, Chief Expert, Police and Border Guard Board, Estonia

Introduction to the project 

Country

Estonia

Duration

The project began in April 2019 and will be completed by 30th June 2021. The training programmes will be reviewed once a year.

Description

Estonian Police and Border Guard Board is preparing the full internal curriculum of international protection related training programs for different groups of officials of the Police and Border Guard Board and the counselors for asylum seekers and returnees. The project is funded by AMIF and Estonian Ministry of the Interior.

Project aims 

The goal of the project is to create a holistic curriculum containing specific training modules for all types of officials, who deal with international protection applicants or/and beneficiaries of international protection according to their job profile.

Resources used 

As a result of the project, all officials of Police and Border Guard Board who have any contact with the asylum applicants will be continuously trained in the field of international protection. The curriculum is based on the European Union Asylum Support Office curriculum competence standards and is amended by the local regulations and guidelines.

There will be 8 different training modules, including e-learning environment created based on the respective need of knowledge of each group. The groups are determined as follows: 1) asylum case officers, 2) Dublin case officers, 3) Counselors of international protection applicants and returnees, 4) COI experts, 5) Officials of Police and Border Guard Board service points, 6) Border guards and migration surveillance officers, 7) Officials of detention center and 8) ASYL reserve officials (officials who work in the various positions in the Police and Boarder Guard, but are willing and trained to perform international protection proceedings in case of the mass influx).

The project is funded by AMIF and 25% of the budget is financed by Ministry of Interior.

Main activities of the Good Practice

Objective 1 of the GCR: Protection capacity of Estonian international protection proceeding authority will increase, the officials will be trained according to international standards. It helps to carry out lawful proceeding that meets the requirement of EU and international acquis.

Partners

• Ministry of the Interior

Challenges and how they were overcome

The biggest challenge is to prepare the programmes that would best fit the exact needs of the various groups of officials considering there are quite different job profiles.

To overcome this, the project team members met with the representatives of the officials of different job profiles and tried to map together their needs for specific training programmes.

Results of the Good Practice 

• The refugees receive better service from the officials of Police and Border Guard Board.
• The knowledge of officials will be improved and the quality of proceedings carried out by the officials will grow.
• Overall awareness of the topic will be raised.

Next steps 

The project currently continues until 30 June 2021. After that a regular yearly review and updating of modules.