An in-the-country Training on Places of Refuge for ships in need of assistance took place on 15 – 16 May 2018 in Ankara, Turkey, organised within the framework of the EU-funded Black and Caspian Sea regions project as an action under the Bilateral activities component. The two EMSA speakers together with a lecturer from the World Maritime University, Dr. Jens-Uwe Schröder-Hinrichs shared their knowledge and experience on the IMO Guidelines on Places of Refuge, the EU Operational Guidelines as well as on the financial security and compensation in the context of Places of Refuge. During the training the 25 participants were presented the EMSA support tools in information gathering and the scenarios from the 3rd Table Top Exercise on Places of Refuge organised by EMSA in September 2017 in Norway.