News

On 10 November the Vienna Migration Conference opened in the presence of more than 100 invited senior and high-level representatives from politics, international- and intergovernmental organisations, academia and media. The Austrian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sebastian Kurz, delivered the opening statement to the conference’s high-level political panel entitled "European Migration and Refugee Policies – The Way Ahead". The ICMPD Director General then led the panel discussion on "the progress, gaps and visions for better solutions…".

The surge in the number of refugees and migrants making their way to Europe in 2015 brought the weaknesses of the fragile European migration and protection system to the forefront and indeed led to a virtual collapse of some of its key components, such as the Dublin Regulation. This triggered a policy and political crisis within the European Union as Member States and European Commission found themselves in disagreement over how to effectively handle the situation.

During his visit to Bulgaria, ICMPD's Director General Michael Spindelegger met with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and spoke at the parliament.

Michael Spindelegger has taken office as the Director General of ICMPD on 1 January 2016. His goals in his new position are to further strengthen ICMPD’s role as a member-driven international organisation and as a think tank developing tools for effective migration management.

During a visit of the minister, ICMPD's new Director General presented his goal to strengthen positioning of the organisation as a platform for dialogue and mediation on migration.

ICMPD’s new study finds that Syrian refugees are often trafficked or exploited because they are not able to meet their basic needs. To prevent this, investment in infrastructure and humanitarian aid in the main hosting countries is essential.

On the occasion of the release of ICMPD's Annual Report 2019, we interviewed the Director General and asked some questions on the way forward in migration policy and his future plans for ICMPD.

On 21 and 23 July 2020, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) organised two remote workshops on the training for forced-return monitors in Georgia and Ukraine within the framework of the EU-funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

The European Union supports the Ecuadorian Presidency of the Global Forum on Migration and Development 2019 (GFMD) through the MIgration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) Initiative, implemented by ICMPD. In this context, MIEUX together with UNDP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru, hosted a regional workshop on 16 and 17 October 2019 in Lima.

From 12 to 16 October ICMPD, together with the EU Delegation to Libya and the Libyan Government of National Accord’s National Team for Border Security and Management (NTBSM), co-organised the 5th Civil Society Training Workshop "Advocacy and Awareness-raising Capacities" for Libyan civil society organizations (CSOs) working on migration.

On the occasion of EU Anti-Trafficking Day, 18 October 2019, ICMPD’s Anti-Trafficking Programme stresses the importance of national and regional cooperation and referral to build people’s resilience to human trafficking and ensure an adequate response to trafficking cases.

From the 8th to the 10th of October 2019, and for the first time, trainers from the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) Central Training Center (CTC) delivered a course on document security to personnel from the United Nations’ Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in their headquarters, in Naqoura, South Lebanon.

Migration ranks among the most important and contested public policy issues in many countries. In this context, the policy development process is often far away from the ‘ideal scenario’ and prone to being influenced by election cycles, public opinion or crisis situations.

From 13 to 16 December, the German-funded project "Migration Awareness Raising in Iraq and Pakistan" (MARIP) will organise a workshop on migration reporting for journalists from both countries. Participants will be selected via a competitive process, which accepts applications until 7 November 2019.

From 30 September to 11 October, ten officers from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) were trained and certified at the advance level on document security. The training took place at the IDCentre in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Following the launch of the European Union Global Diaspora Facility, Oleg Chirita, Head of Global Initiatives explores the potential of diaspora engagement for development, scrutinising the history, evidence and rationale of diaspora engagement for development and assessing how ICMPD can capitalise on its experience in diaspora engagement in this new global initiative.

Free movement of labour within the EU has led to unprecedented possibilities for EU citizens to improve their lives by moving to higher-income EU Member States. The consequences for Member States who are mostly origin countries have so far received little attention. Facing increasing challenges on their domestic labour markets, a number of EU Member States have started to develop policies in order to attract back citizens to the country.

On Wednesday 2nd October, ICMPD Director General, Michael Spindelegger, gave a key note speech at a conference entitled "Comprehensive Coordination of the Migration Process" which was held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria.

18 October 2016 is the 10th EU Anti-Trafficking Day. In a three-part blog series, ICMPD analyses challenges and future priorities for the EU and its Member States in combating trafficking in human beings. In view of the forthcoming EU Anti-Trafficking Strategy, we're looking at current anti-trafficking efforts in the context of global migration trends and policies, asking the question of how current debates might shape anti-trafficking in the coming years.

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?"

The project ‘Support to Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa (FMM West Africa) aims to boost the development potential of free movement and migration in West Africa.

What impact is the Syrian war and refugee crisis having on trafficking in persons in the region? ICMPD is carrying out a research assessment to form the basis for well-informed responses, to reduce the likelihood of trafficking cases in the future.