News

The Strengthening Border Security in Ghana (SBS Ghana) project, funded by European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), organised a reception in Accra for three beneficiary organisations who received a three hundred thousand Euros grants, to implement activities that will support and contribute to innovative approaches on mobility issues and border management in Ghana.

In collaboration with the Strengthening Border Security in Ghana (SBS Ghana) project, the Management of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) organised a series of Gender Sensitisation Workshops to champion gender parity within the Service. The European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) funded SBS Ghana Project organised the first workshop in Accra for Management members in June while the second workshop was held in Aburi on August 23-24 for all eighteen (18) regional commanders of the Service.

The SBS Ghana project in collaboration with Alliance Francaise d ’Accra organised a two-week tailor made Functional French language course from November 29 – December 10 in Accra, for twelve (12) selected officers from the Ghana Immigration Service. The selected officers were from the International Relations desk at the GIS headquarters and from all the main border posts across Ghana.

On 26 January 2022, ICMPD held an online briefing for its Member States on the role of information (technology) in the context of irregular migration. The aim of this virtual exchange was to shed light on the growing importance of ICT as well as various technological solutions developed in cooperation with the private sector to support government efforts in the area of migration management.

From 1 to 3 March, ICMPD in Azerbaijan organised a 3-day training on Monitoring and Evaluation Methodology. It took place in the framework of Component 1 “Migration Management: Policy Agenda and its Implementation” of the EU-funded Support to the Implementation of the Mobility Partnership with Azerbaijan (MOBILAZE 2) project. 

Representatives from the Jordanian Authorities, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development as implementing organisation and partner organisation the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) gathered on February 22^nd 2022 for the Inauguration of the Borders and Residency (BRD) Document Laboratory in the Forensic Laboratory Department.

On Monday 22 February 2022, In the framework of the ERRIN Government-to-Government project in Ghana, a Migration Information Centre for Returnees (MICR) was established at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA).

Vienna, 24 January 2022: Last year saw a rebound to pre-pandemic levels of irregular migration to Europe, with almost 200,000 illegal crossings recorded at EU borders, a 57% rise compared to 2020 and 38% rise compared to 2019. The ICMPD Migration Outlook report 2022 charts what drove these spikes and predicts how and why they will continue into 2022.

The Federal Investigation Agency Pakistan, the Anti-Narcotics Force, the Pakistan Customs and the Police united on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022. They highlighted the role of gender equality and awareness in national border management agencies in Pakistan. On 7-9 March 2022, an inter-agency workshop was held in Islamabad for female officers exclusively by the involved services aimed at raising gender awareness as well as collecting feedback on their working experiences and challenges at Pakistan’s borders.

On 9-10 December 2021, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia, Phase 10, (BOMCA 10) held its first regional Kick-off meeting on Cross-Border Cooperation: Best Practices and Outlook for Central Asia.

A new report, created in the course of European Return and Reintegration Network’s Quality monitoring framework for reintegration assistance, explores the key dimensions of reintegration after voluntary return and offers recommendations to strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This work draws on four workshops co-organised by ERRIN and MPI Europe during which representatives of EU+ Member States, the European Commission and Frontex discussed the various dimensions of reintegration assistance and how its impact can be measured.

From 20-27 January 2021, 30 representatives of Central Asian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) completed an interactive course on project management cycle. The course was organised in the framework of ​​the BOMCA 10 Programme, within the Component 4 on improvement of cross-border cooperation.

On 9 March, ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger met with Hungarian State Secretary Péter Sztáray at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. His visit was aimed at understanding the realities of mass displacement from Ukraine and supporting ICMPD member states impacted by the conflict.  

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum invited ICMPD to participate in the panel on “Addressing irregular migration: A holistic approach” on 11 March 2022. ICMPD was represented by the Director Migration Dialogues and Cooperation, Martijn Pluim.

The Ministry of Justice of Cabo Verde held an extended meeting of the National Anti-Trafficking Observatory to discuss future actions. They want to enhance the institutional coordination mechanism in order to prevent and combat trafficking in persons as well as the national policy response.

Following the appointment of the new Libyan Focal Points for the Rabat and the Khartoum Processes, ICMPD organised a workshop in Tripoli, Libya to give the new Focal Points an introduction to the general functioning of the two migration dialogues. The workshop took place within the framework of the LIBMITAF project, co-funded by the EU and the Swiss Confederation.

17 February 2022, The Anti-Trafficking Programme of ICMPD presents the Non-paper “Beyond Joint Actions: Towards integrated anti-trafficking responses of European Union Member States and Western Balkans”. The document identifies avenues of collaboration between anti-trafficking stakeholders in the Western Balkans (WB) and the European Union (EU), including its institutions and agencies as well as its Member States (MS), with a view to enhancing the quality and effectiveness of interventions to combat trafficking in human beings (THB) across Europe.

On 17 March 2022, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Moldova Ana Revenco met with ICMPD and its Member States. They discussed the challenges and needs related to the current unprecedented influx to the Republic of Moldova of Ukrainians and third country nationals from Ukraine in reaction to the Russian invasion.

Within the framework of the EU and Swiss Confederation co-funded LIBMITAF project, ICMPD organised a preparatory session and accompanied the Libyan Delegation to the Khartoum Process Senior Officials’ Meeting in Kampala, Uganda.

The EU is witnessing an influx of refugees from Ukraine on a far greater scale than in 2015-2016. What will be the status of the new arrivals; what can be done for non-Ukrainians trying to escape the conflict; and what does it mean for EU asylum policy in the medium term?

On 2 February, ICMPD together with Moldovan stakeholders celebrated the results of FReMM in a project closing event, while kicking off on that same occasion the newly launched project called CareFor. The event gathered management-level representatives of the key national stakeholders and donor community.

From 1-3 February, the ECOWAS Commission held the 14th Annual Review Meeting of the Regional Network of National Focal Institutions against Trafficking in Persons Plus (RNNI-TIP+) in Niamey, Niger. Building upon the existing successful cooperation, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) supported the organisation of the meeting in the framework of the project “Organised Crime West Africa Response to Trafficking (OCWAR-T), funded by the European Union and the German government. Furthermore, the ICMPD-implemented a project on strengthening the cooperation between Niger and Nigeria, funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, complemented these joint efforts.

On 24 March 2022, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and ICMPD signed an MoU for the implementation of the second phase of the SMMIG project, funded by the Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On 01 March 2022, ICMPD and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (BMZ) officially launched the Inspire project in an online event gathering key German, European and regional stakeholders as well as potential partners. The event aimed at familiarising prospective partners with the project objectives and approach while stimulating exchanges on promising practices and challenges related to private sector engagement in development-oriented skills partnerships.

ICMPD has a long-standing cooperation with Ukraine dating back to 1995. Numerous joint projects were implemented, cooperation is ongoing on multilateral and bilateral levels and in 2021 the ICMPD Kyiv Office was established. ICMPD is thus closely monitoring the developments in Ukraine. Due to the security situation, the ICMPD office has been temporarily closed. The project teams continue their work from other duty stations whenever possible. Below, we are gathering our policy, research, and capacity-building activities to reflect ICMPD's ongoing engagement in Ukraine.