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ICMPD successfully hosted the 12th International Summer School on Migration on 29 June-4 July 2025 in Armenia.

The 4th EU Global Diaspora Facility’s Future Forum brought diaspora organisations together with public institutions and policymakers from four continents to share practices and explore how inclusive partnerships make diaspora contributions to development in countries of origin more effective and sustainable.

ICMPD is advancing the operational practices and legal safeguards for migrants and asylum seekers crossing Moldova’s borders. Working with the country’s Border Police and the Ombudsman Office, ICMPD hosted a workshop and consultations focused on human rights at the border, including entry and exit, data protection, and asylum safeguards.

ICMPD has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Bangladesh to strengthen its strategic engagement and cooperation in the areas of border management, promoting regular migration, preventing irregular migration, and combatting human trafficking. The partnership includes bilateral and multilateral dialogues, as well as support to human and institutional capacity development of relevant border and migration agencies in Bangladesh.

ICMPD co-hosted the International Border Management Conference with the Ministry of Asylum and Migration of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on 18-19 November 2025. The event addressed border management challenges including digitalisation, border security, capacity building for operational staff, and transnational crime while advancing effective, human rights-based solutions.

The Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of South-East Europe (NATC-SEE)¹ gathered to develop and exchange solutions on human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and labour exploitation including of foreign nationals in the region. At the meeting in Sarajevo on 13-14 November 2025, members of the network provided updates on their recent and upcoming regional collaborations to support victims of human trafficking; as well as case studies on identifying and prosecuting trafficking cases.

Officials and delegates from 39 Budapest Process countries and 12 organisations met in Istanbul on 26–27 November 2025, hosted by Türkiye as Chair. The 37th Senior Officials Meeting, since the dialogue’s launch in 1993, called for prioritising return and reintegration, legal pathways, and stronger law-enforcement cooperation.

Director General elect Susanne Raab stressed the need for genuine alternatives for migrants to ensure access to legal pathways, to protect them from human traffickers and migrant smugglers. Ms Raab emphasised this at the second International Conference of the Global Alliance to Counter Migrant Smuggling in Brussels on 10 December; which opened with a Keynote Speech by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Three regional migration Dialogues are further strengthening the responses to human trafficking and migrant smuggling across African and European routes. The Khartoum, Rabat, and Niamey Processes marked an important milestone in interregional cooperation to enhance policies and cooperation to align with realities on the ground, ensuring that responses to these crimes remain fit for purpose.

ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab met with HE Minister of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Mr Rebar Ahmad, to sign a Cooperation Agreement in strengthening strategic engagement in the areas of migration management, reintegration, and capacity building.

In 2025, EU Member States recorded a 26% decrease in irregular arrivals and a 21% decrease in asylum applications. It is the first marked decline in these figures in many years, and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development’s (ICMPD) Migration Outlook report, released today, says that this should provide momentum to the EU’s Asylum and Migration Pact implementation.

The fraudulent use of identity and travel documents can facilitate transnational criminal activities, including human trafficking and migrant smuggling – particularly when people move across borders undetected. This has been endemic and poses a persistent threat to regional security across West Africa.

European Union and international partners, government representatives, civil society organisations, gathered in Dushanbe in December for a high-level briefing to strengthen long-term reintegration support systems for returning migrants in Tajikistan. Discussions centred on the multifaceted reintegration landscape in Tajikistan, highlighting the need for more coherent, predictable, and sustainable support for returning Tajik nationals.

ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab met with Poland’s Secretary of State, Mr Czesław Mroczek, on 27 January 2026 in Warsaw. The meetings focused on current national and regional migration dynamics, including external EU border and security-linked pressures; the situation of Ukrainians in Poland; and ways to elevate ICMPD–Poland cooperation. This was also Ms Raab’s first visit to an ICMPD Member State, since assuming office as new Director General this month. 

Switzerland takes on the 2026 Chairmanship of the Rabat Process, with a commitment to fostering constructive dialogue among countries of origin, transit, and destination, while actively engaging civil society, non-governmental and international organisations, the private sector, and youth. The handover of the Chairmanship from Nigeria took place at the Senior Officials Meeting in Abuja on 28-29 January 2026.

Director General Susanne Raab met with Swedish Minister for Migration HE Johan Forssell in Stockholm in January, capping Sweden’s successful 2025 Chairmanship of ICMPD’s Steering Group. They discussed the ongoing cooperation along migration routes and with partner countries, return and reintegration, and the EU Pact for Migration and Asylum. As the Director General’s first visit to Sweden, the mission also sets the foundation for continued high-level dialogue and future collaboration aligned with ICMPD’s Strategy 2030.

Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen, and ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab launched the European Legal Gateway Office in India on 18 February 2026.

ICMPD is supporting the European Union in the European Legal Gateway Office in India. The new project was launched yesterday to facilitate the mobility of Indian ICT professionals, students, and researchers to the EU; strengthen the India-EU cooperation; and as well as to enable economic benefits for both India and Europe. Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and European Commission Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen led the launch, with ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab.

The 2026 Café Kyiv opened on Tuesday with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz calling for continued support for Ukraine. “We have supported Ukraine financially, politically, and also militarily. We have been doing so for four years, and we will continue to do so. [We need] peace in Europe that is not dictated to Ukrainians and Europeans, but one that we shape together,” Chancellor Merz said.

ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab welcomed Ambassadors and senior members of the diplomatic corps in Vienna, representing countries of origin and countries along migration routes towards Europe with which ICMPD closely cooperates. Amidst the current conflict in the Middle East, Ms Raab expressed the organisation’s commitment to strong partnerships and the crucial role of diplomacy in conflict resolution, and international cooperation on migration governance.

ICMPD, in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), organised a two-day State Engagement Programme in Guwahati, Assam on 12-13 February 2026. Titled Linking India-EU Migration Opportunities and the Northeast Corridor, the dialogue strengthens cooperation on safe, orderly, and regular migration and mobility between India and the European Union and its Member States.

The Republic of Poland assumes the Chairmanship of the ICMPD Steering Group 2026. On 4 March 2026, Mr Paweł Dąbrowski, Plenipotentiary of the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration for International Cooperation, accepted the handover of the Chairmanship from Ms Eva Åkerman Börje, Director of the International Migration Department of Sweden’s Ministry of Justice; joined by ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab.