News

On 28 May 28 2021, ICMPD’s SUPREME project held an online conference on Turkey’s Priorities on Irregular Migration and Return. Constituting SUPREME’s final project activity, the conference brought together crucial national and international stakeholders in the field of irregular migration.

On 26 May, the EUROMED Migration V Programme (EMM5) organised an online Technical Briefing on the New EU Agenda for the Mediterranean. The event was attended by over 50 representatives of 22 EMM5 participating countries and by representatives of international organisations and European agencies.

As the pandemic reaches different stages in different countries, its longer-term impacts on the migration and employment landscape, as well as economic recovery, will become increasingly pressing priorities to address – and ones that will necessitate revisiting cooperation on labour migration schemes. In this context, the Republic of Malta and ICMPD, through its Member States Programme, organised an expert discussion on 27 May 2021 that explored the future of legal migration policies, with a focus on enhanced cooperation and partnerships that are responsive to the post-COVID-19 reality.

On 27 May, representatives of the European Union Delegation to Lebanon, Lebanese and international academics in the field of maritime governance, local practitioners in the shipping industry, and representatives of ICMPD held a 2-hour webinar as a first activity in a series of webinars on Lebanon’s maritime domain.

On 19 – 20 May, a meeting organised in Abuja under the auspices of the Working Group on Return and Reintegration (WGRR), chaired by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons of Nigeria (NCFRMI), gathered 33 participants from government institutions and civil society organisations from around the country, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) as well as international organisations.

On 17 May 2021, ICMPD within the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" launched the pilot initiative on prevention of cross-border crime at the green border between Ukraine and Romania. The pilot includes elements of technical re-equipment as well as joint capacity building and anti-corruption trainings implemented on the basis of the new infrastructure.

On 13 May, the Ombudsman Office of the Republic of Moldova issued an order to appoint its Torture Prevention Directorate in charge of monitoring forced-returns. For the first time in the country’s history, it formally assigned a dedicated team of forced-return monitors. The act of appointment comes as a result of a series of earlier activities carried out within the framework of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM). Those include a workshop with Moldovan stakeholders on sharing the EU good practices on forced-return monitoring and a meeting on agreeing the standard monitor’s profile for Moldova.

Michael Spindelegger, Director General of ICMPD, about the tremendous impact that COVID-19 has had on global migration, about how ICMPD has had to adapt and about how ICMPD can help to build a well-functioning European asylum system.

On 29 April, ICMPD and the American Business Council organised the virtual round table “Investment opportunities in Nigeria”. The round table was hosted by ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger.

Strengthening the Evidence Base for Migration Policies: A Central Migration Data Management Solution for Jordan (MIDAM)" project held its third Project Steering Group (PSG) meeting on March 22, 2021.

On 15-16 April 2021, ICMPD facilitated a two-day international conference on enhancing interagency cooperation among the national integrated border management (IBM) agencies in Ukraine organised under the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”.

On the 22 March – 1 April 2021, ICMPD facilitated cooperation between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Iraq Border Management authorities through a joint initiative to develop the operational and training expertise on document security and identity. The cooperation also promoted the role of local actors in developing intra-regional solutions to capacity development in the area of border management.

With Lithuania increasingly looking to international talent to drive growth, the TALENTAS project helped the government work towards its goal of attracting and retaining more international students, highly skilled migrants, and Lithuanians living abroad.

On 31 March-1 April 2021, ICMPD organised a two-day workshop for the experts of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) aimed at identifying the most relevant concepts, approaches and methodologies for SBGS Human Resources Management Strategy development.

On 29 March, ICMPD signed a partnership agreement with the NATO affiliate Multinational CIMIC Group to provide technical assistance to Lebanese border authorities on civil-military cooperation related themes. The agreement was signed in the framework of the ICMPD project “Strengthening Capability for Integrated Border Management in Lebanon”.