An assessment of the first drug rehabilitation programme for prisoners in Ukraine, supported by the EU Action Against Drugs and Organised Crime (EU-ACT), took place on 9 March.

This joint activity was developed by experts from the Spanish Interior Ministry with the State Penitentiary Service of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, and implemented in the Boryspil colony.

Since 2018, the project has assessed the situation in seven Ukrainian prisons, including the Psychiatric Penitentiary Centre in Zaporizhzhia. Spanish specialists working with Ukrainian experts (psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers from prisons) then developed a tailored drug rehabilitation programme. The Boryspil colony became the first to implement the programme, whose impact was evaluated by experts as profound.

EU-ACT aims at building capacities to increase regional and trans-regional law enforcement cooperation and coordination in the fight against organised crime and trafficking activities along the so-called ‘Heroin route’.