Return - IOM Publications - International Organization for Migration

Return Migration: Policies and Practices
The Estonian prison system is overcrowded, the conditions are very poor and there are no special
areas for minors or families, although the amended Administrative Offences Act and the Act
on the Execution Procedure foresee these.
Asylum seekers may also be held in custody under certain circumstances at the reception centre
established in June 2000 and situated some 200 kilometres from the capital in a little village
close to the Russian border. Generally, escape from the centre constitutes an administrative
offence and is punished with imprisonment of 30 days. In the past, migrants who attempted to
escape were placed in a specially designated area within the Tallinn prison, which is run by the
Ministry of Justice.
Persons detained at the border are kept at the border checkpoint and if possible transferred by the
Border Guards to the country of origin within 24 hours. Occasionally, these persons stay at an
airport holding room or in the guestrooms of the international carriers.
In the past, Estonia faced different problems with foreigners who had been placed in detention
pending their deportation, mainly because of the absence of a receiving country. This was often
the case with CIS citizens who had not obtained the relevant national passport; or in the case of
transits en-route to the country of return, when permission is upheld and it becomes impossible
to execute the expulsion. In these cases, foreigners had to apply for legalization of their stay and
for a temporary residence permit, in order to be released.
Prosecution
Under the Refugee Act, asylum seekers are fingerprinted, and the fingerprints recorded in the
Police Board registry. While migrants rejected at the borders are not fingerprinted, their travel
documents are scanned through the registries of criminals in the Baltic database. 3
In the absence of identification documents, foreigners are fingerprinted. Their data is entered, as
that of illegal migrants, in a database. A computerized network has been installed to enable the
relevant authorities to track migrants entering the country, as well as to combat forged documents.
The Citizenship and Migration Board stamps, in accordance with a standard format laid down
by the Minister of Interior, the travel documents of expelled migrants. These are barred from
re-entering Estonia for ten years.
The exchange of information concerning irregular immigration, including information on asylum
seekers, statistical data and their analysis among Estonia and other countries, has improved
significantly in recent years. The reduction of irregular entries to Estonia may be attributable
also to extensive cooperation by the border guards with the country’s neighbouring countries
and the increasing efficiency of border monitoring activities.
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