come the main destination country for migrant work- The two institutions also continued co-operation that ers in the region. According to the latest official esti- began several years ago on the exchange of migration- mates, more than 5 million irregular migrants current- related information among Ukraine, Moldova, and ly reside in Russia, mostly citizens of the countries of Kyrgyzstan. Known as the Regional Data-Sharing the former Soviet Union, including a growing number Mechanism, this project was initiated as a response to of migrants from Central Asia. requests from national governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The mechanism is used for data collection and for sharing legal and policy information. In 2004, the ODIHR, the Kyrgyz Consulate-General in Yekaterinburg, and the Bishkek-based Regional Centre for Migration and Refugee Issues launched a pilot proj- Assistance in reforming legislation affecting citizens leaving their own country ect on cross-border co-operation on labour-migration issues between Kyrgyzstan and Russia’s Sverdlovsk Oblast, a region with relative economic prosperity that is close In most of the countries of the former Soviet Union, to the border with Kazakhstan and that has been a legislation on citizens’ leaving their own countries magnet for hundreds of thousands of migrants, particu- stems from the Soviet era. This includes a large number larly from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The project will of limitations on an individual’s right to leave his or her study the practical implementation of existing legisla- country, exercised through denial of personal docu- tion, bilateral agreements, and other mechanisms of ments for certain categories of people, e.g., young labour-migration management, as well as the attitude men of draft age, people in possession of state secrets, of policy makers, law-enforcement agencies, and the etc. Most of these limitations contradict OSCE commit- population at large towards migrants from Central Asia. ments on freedom of movement, as well as a number of international human-rights documents. Russian authorities expressed interest in co-operation with the ODIHR on developing a training course for Interior Ministry Academies that focused on migration is- (20) The participating States will respect fully the sues, particularly in relation to discrimination against right of everyone: migrants. As a result, the ODIHR, the Interior Ministry,
to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State, and and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched a study of attitudes towards migrants
to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. in Russian society based on surveys among government officials, law-enforcement personnel, employers, the population at large, and migrants themselves. Concluding Document of CSCE Vienna Third Follow-up Meeting, 1989 The ODIHR and the IOM also co-operated on several other projects, organizing a workshop in Chisinau in September on labour-migration policy and data man- The ODIHR assisted legislative-reform efforts in Belarus agement for the new neighbours of the European and Armenia throughout 2004, with the aim of ensur- Union: Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and the Russian Fed- ing that draft laws in both countries on the entry and eration. Recognizing that protection of migrant work- exit of citizens were in compliance with international ers abroad is one of the key challenges in this area, standards on freedom of movement. Training visits participants called for measures to optimize benefits were organized for government officials from Armenia from labour migration for both source and recipient and Belarus to become familiar with the experiences of countries. Slovakia and Lithuania regarding the issuance of travel 44