News

A new service of psychological counselling will be rendered to the residents of the Migrants Accommodation Centre in Chisinau. Such service has been a pressing need at the Centre ever since its setting-up over a decade ago. Psychological counselling of foreigners is an increasing priority especially now, amidst the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

On 5-8 July 2022, the MOBILAZE 2 project organised a study visit to Spain for relevant Azerbaijani authorities to learn about the legal regime and status of foreign domestic workers.

On 27 June, the Bureau for Migration and Asylum was introduced to the external expert on risk analysis. The expert has been hired upon Bureau’s request to help the institution streamline its in-house risk analysis function amidst the current humanitarian crisis.

On 23 June 2022 in Warsaw, Poland, the Polish Migration Forum Foundation (PFM), in collaboration with ICMPD and the Association for Legal Intervention (SIP), launched the first networking event as part of the ICMPD-led project on Comprehensive Support for People in a Vulnerable Situation in the Polish Migration Management System (KOMPLEKS). 

From 21-23 June, Ministerial representatives of EU Member States and Southern Partner Countries, as well as migration experts from international organisations and academia met in Jordan at the Conference ‘Capacity Partnerships: Responding to the Needs of Refugees by Developing Opportunities for Host Countries’. They explored ways in which international cooperation could strengthen national and regional capacities to mitigate the challenges and maximise the benefits arising from protracted displacement.

On 20 July, ICMPD in partnership with the Public Security Directorate and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, organised a “Lessons Learned Conference of the Document Security Project in Jordan” in Amman. The conference aimed to highlight the main achievements and success of this pilot project, in addition to presenting lessons learned and good practices in the field of document security.

On 28 July 2022, the Federal Minister for Women, Family, Integration and Media of the Republic of Austria, organised a conference on ministerial and state levels to address current trends and challenges for integration in Europe. ICMPD’s Director General Michael Spindelegger, attended the conference and pointed out that both, refugee hosting countries as well as refugees need continued international support. 

Under the title ‘Migration and Society – A whole of government process with a whole-of society participation ‘representatives of ICMPD, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) and the University College of Teacher Education Lower Austria (PH NÖ) met to discuss the results of the joint project ‘MIGRATION.DIGITAL.PEDAGOGY‘ (MiDiP). External experts were invited to join the discussion on social peace, diversity and public safety to provide an additional perspective.

ICMPD and international organisations call on states to harness the opportunities presented by technology to counter trafficking in persons. On the occasion of 30 July, the International Day against Trafficking in Persons, a joint statement was published by the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), that ICMPD is co-chairing this year.

During its first mission to Kenya and Ghana, the Inspire project team introduced the project to a variety of stakeholders in Mombasa, Nairobi and Accra.

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has recently become the target of an external cyber-attack. The attackers managed to gain limited access to individual servers and to get hold of some of our data.

Immediately after discovering the attack ICMPD has taken all measures to limit the impact of this attack. In parallel, ICMPD reported the issue to the Austrian Data Protection Authorities in accordance with the regulations. The criminal investigation of this case is currently ongoing and ICMPD is cooperating with the authorities.

On 5-6 September 2022, in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, the EU-funded Border Management Programme in Central Asia – Phase 10 (BOMCA 10) started its first of a series of National Project Steering Group Meetings (NSGMs) in Central Asia. During September – October 2022, the leadership of the project, representatives of the European Union and implementing partners will meet with the key partners, such as state agencies and international organisations in all countries across the region to review the Programme’s progress in the current year and to define upcoming plans.

With this delivery of surveillance equipment, the EU assistance to IBM agencies under the EU4IBM project has reached a total value of more than EUR 1.5 million, and includes a wide range of critically needed supplies. These supplies help enable the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine to better fulfil border security tasks and respond to newly emerging risks.

During a visit to Uzbekistan, ICMPD Director General signed a Memorandum of Understanding between ICMPD and the Agency for External Labor Migration under the Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

On 19-23 September 2022, the MOBILAZE 2 project organised a study visit to Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia for Azerbaijani Border Control Officials. They exchanged on good practices in education, methodology and tools, used in trainings to border service agencies on document security, border management/integrated border management and risk analyses between EU and Azerbaijani colleagues.

The Strengthening Border Security in Ghana (SBS Ghana) project, funded by European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), in collaboration with the Ghana Integrity Initiative, held a two-day roundtable discussion and workshop on “The Role of CSOs in Ghana’s Border Security Management.”

In September 2022, the EU-funded MOBILAZE 2 and Prague Process projects organised the International Summer School on Migration. Participants of the event were young graduates and professionals from Azerbaijan and Ukraine who attended lectures and workshops by professors of renowned EU universities.

The seventh annual Vienna Migration Conference (VMC) on 11-12 October will provide a chance to assess the most crucial drivers of migration, with a host of high-level speakers and experts in attendance: regional instabilities and ongoing conflicts, the instrumentalisation of migration, climate change, and post-pandemic labour market shortages.

On 21-22 September 2002, ICMPD and the African Union Commission (AUC) jointly organised a workshop to validate the report «Mapping Issues for Formulating a Strategic Plan for the African Centre for the Study and Research on Migration» in Bamako, Mali in Addis Ababa.

MOBILAZE 2 project organized participation of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the “Effective migration management: putting policy into action” executive training course organized by the School of Transnational Governance and Migration Policy Center by the European University Institute in 5-7 October, in Florence, Italy.

On 11 and 12 October 2022, ICMPD hosted the seventh edition of the Vienna Migration Conference, (VMC2022) Europe’s leading forum on migration. The conference gathered key European and global actors in Vienna’s historic Palais Niederösterreich to discuss the old and new forces shaping international migration – and how governments, international organisations and civil society should respond. These included the impact of ongoing conflicts and instability, instrumentalisation of migration, climate change and post-COVID-19 pandemic labour shortages on the movement of people.

As a Secretariat of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators in South-East Europe (NATC SEE), ICMPD supports the Slovenian chairmanship of the Network to mark the EU Anti-trafficking day. The Network issued a Joint Statement addressing the vulnerability of the millions affected by the war in Ukraine to exploitation, abuse and human trafficking.

Between July and September 2022, under the scope of the KOMPLEKS project, ICMPD organised a first series of training on gender-based violence and risk of human trafficking of unaccompanied minors. 

During 20-21 October, the Ombudsman Office, in coordination with the Moldovan Bureau for Migration and Asylum, carried out the first forced return monitoring mission in country’s history. Forced-return monitoring aims to ensure human rights compliance during the removal operations with a view to increase transparency and accountability.

On 18 October 2022, ICMPD, as part of the SPRING project, held a webinar on fast tracking the labour market integration of people from Ukraine. The panel featured six experts and practitioners who shared their views on labour market inclusion from different angles.