News

On 24 February 2020, ICMPD’s Director General was a panelist at the High-Level Panel Discussion "A New Balanced Narrative on Migration – Attaining rights-based migration policy through a balanced public debate on migration" in Geneva.

From 10 to 14 February 2020, representatives from the Lithuanian Government’s Office, Invest Lithuania, the Lithuanian Ministry of the Interior, the Lithuanian Ministry of Social Security and Labour attended a study visit under the EU-funded project "TALENTAS – Developing a strategy for the implementation of talent policy in Lithuania".

On 9 February, the first interactive TRAFIG stakeholder workshop took place in Irbid, Jordan. It kicked off a series of events in the TRAFIG focus countries. This first workshop aimed to discuss viable policy options and good practices and supports the identification of possible solutions to protracted displacement.

The project "Strengthening Border Security in Ghana" (SBS Ghana) was launched on 6 February 2020 at the Ghana Immigration Service headquarters. The project aims at improving border management and security in Ghana.

On 06 February 2020, ICMPD officially signed a document of cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) of the Republic of Iraq at the ICMPD Headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

In the framework of the programme EUROMED Migration IV, ICMPD has released, together with the Observatory of Public Attitudes to Migration (OPAM - EUI), the second of three chapters for the report entitled "Impact of Public Attitudes to migration on the political environment in the Euro-Mediterranean Region".

ICMPD participates at the 12th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit in the framework of numerous projects. The Forum, which is held in Quito, Ecuador, during the week of 20 - 24 January 2020, welcomes about 1000 policy makers and practitioners in the field of migration and development from all world regions and representatives from international organisations are attending the forum.

On 16 January 2020, the Seat Agreement between the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was officially signed at the Nigerian Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

ICMPD DG Michael Spindelegger was a panellist at the High-Level Policy Forum on Migration and Integration, which took place on 16 January at the OECD Headquarters in Paris, France. The Forum was organised back to back with the first-ever OECD Ministerial Meeting on Migration and Integration, taking place the day after the Forum.

On 20th of December, the European Union Delegation in Türkiye hosted the signature ceremony of the contribution agreement for the ENHANCER Project (Enhancement of Entrepreneurship Capacities for Sustainable Socio-Economic Integration), under the European Union Facility for Refugees in Türkiye II funds. This 4-year project marks one of the largest projects to be implemented by ICMPD, with a total budget of 26,358,336 EUR.

From 16-18 December 2019, UNHCR together with Switzerland hosted the first -ever Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, Switzerland. ICMPD’s Director Michael Spindelegger met with a number of ICMPD’s partners and high-level officials during the event.

On 9-12th December 2019, ICMPD organised a four day long National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Governance and Operational Settings Workshop in Ankara.

On 11 December 2019, stakeholders from the youth work and integration fields met in Vienna to exchange good practices in the field of cross-sectoral cooperation. ICMPD hosted an international forum with participants from Austria, Belgium, Germany and Sweden to improve relations between the two sectors.

On the 1-3 December 2019, ICMPD welcomed Deputy Ministers of Finance, Defence, Transport and Refugees and Repatriation from Afghanistan as part of a multi-agency delegation participating in the first formal meeting to develop a National Integrated Border Management Strategy and Action Plan for Afghanistan in Istanbul, Türkiye.

ICMPD and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) organised two trainings of trainers (ToT) on the newly developed fundamental rights and forced-return monitoring training for escort officers in Member States (MS). Both the trainings took place in the framework of the Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III) project in Warsaw on 27-28 and 28-29 November 2019, respectively.

On 11-12 November 2019, the second Euro-Mediterranean Communicator’s Workshop and a high-level event on public communication and migration and were held in Athens, Greece in the framework of the EUROMED Migration IV (EMM4) programme. The joint event was hosted by the Greek Ministry for Citizen Protection, General Secretariat for Migration Policy, Reception and Asylum of the Hellenic Republic and co-organised with the Club of Venice.

In Amman, on November 18, ICMPD together with the Government of Jordan, the European Union (EU), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), launched the Integrated Border Management (IBM) project.

From 21-22 November, ICMPD hosted the Vienna Migration Conference for the fourth time. Entitled "Breaking the gridlock and moving forward: recommendations for the next five years of EU migration policy" the conference aimed to progress the dialogue on migration policy in the next 5 years. The conference took place at the Aula of Sciences in Vienna and hosted 5 ministers and a record-number of participants.

In Lisbon on 9 and 10 November 2019, the EU Global Diaspora Facility (EUDiF) organised its first activity, the ‘Diaspora Consultation: Southwest Europe’.

Within the EU funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) organised the 2nd Training for Forced-Return Monitors on 11-15 November 2019 in Rome. The training was hosted by the Office of the National Guarantor for the Rights of the Persons Detained or Deprived of Liberty in Italy – one out of 22 FReM III project partner countries – and organised jointly with the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).

ICMPD and ILO organised a Listening Session for the European Higher Education Virtual Fair India 2019 (EHEVF 2019) in conjunction with ICM at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra in New Delhi, which gathered 94 students from/around New Delhi.

New ICMPD study on the impact of the Syrian war and refugee situation on trafficking in persons in the region makes recommendations on how to address vulnerability.

Addressing the vulnerability of people affected by the Syrian crisis is necessary to prevent their exploitation at the hands of human traffickers. In Syria and the surrounding countries, this means providing access to basic needs and services in the short term. It means providing more resettlement and other safe travel options to safe countries outside the region to address the current reliance on migrant smugglers.

This new publication presents good practices and lessons learnt from the initiative 'MIgration EU eXpertise - MIEUX', an innovative and pioneering migration experts’ facility with the aim of enhancing the capacities of authorities from EU partner countries.

The relatively recent upsurge in projects, meetings and other activities to support diaspora engagement has resulted in a number of lessons learnt for ICMPD, which we analyse in a new Working Paper: "Promoting Diaspora Engagement: What Have We Learned?"