On September 15, 2014 the seminar “Promoting the Issues of Refugees and Awareness-Raising in the Belarusian Society” for the students of the Institute of Journalism of BSU took place on the base of the corresponding Institute. The event was organized jointly by the International Non-governmental Association for Scientific Research, Information and Educational Programmes “Evolutio” and the Institute of Journalism of BSU with the support of the UNHCR Representation in the Republic of Belarus.
Anna Basova, Dean of the Faculty of Advanced Training and Retraining of the Institute of Journalism of BSU, PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, gave an introductory speech at the seminar. She noted that current geopolitical situation in the world dictates the necessity of more detailed consideration of the topics of refugees, forced migration and statelessness.
Speeches of the experts in the sphere of forced migration as well as in the area of mass media coverage of this problem were presented in the framework of the seminar. Natalia Borisovets, Leading Specialist of the Office on Refugees and Asylum Issues of the Department on the Citizenship and Migration of the MIA of the Republic of Belarus, presented her report on the topic “The National Asylum System in the Republic of Belarus: Legislative Basis”. In her speech she touched upon the main legislative aspects of the Republic of Belarus on provision of different forms of protection and presented the most recent statistics. According to her, 899 persons were recognized as refugees on the territory of Belarus as of September 15, 2014. The majority of them are citizens of Afghanistan. Natalia Borisovets also demonstrated a sample of the refugee certificate and some other documents. Answering the audience’s questions she clarified some nuances connected with the interview and consideration of the refugee application procedures.
Timofey Solodkov, Protection Officer of the UNHCR Representation in the Republic of Belarus, delivered the speech on the topic “Refugee Problem: UNHCR Activities in the World and in the Republic of Belarus” where he told about the history of formation of this UN Agency, about its current activities presented in all regions of the world as well as about the projects being implemented in the Republic of Belarus. Timofey Solodkov distinguished such terms as “refugee status” and “political asylum” and also stopped on the definition of the “loss of the refugee status” and for what reasons it may happen.
Andrey Selivanov, Executive Director of the INA “Evolutio”, presented the information titled “Formation of Positive Attitude Towards Refugees and Coverage of This Topic in Mass Media”. He focused on determining such terms as “forced migration”, “voluntary migration”, “refugees”, “ecological migrant”, etc. Distinguishing these definitions Andrey Selivanov noted the necessity for journalists to understand them today, especially while presenting interview with refugees.
The audience embraced the speeches with interest. Following the presentations vivid discussion on the interesting for the audience topics took place.