News

Co-organised by the Antalya Diplomacy Forum and ICMPD, hosted by the Turkish Ministry for Foreign Affairs, a high-level virtual meeting took place entitled "The Situation of Refugees and Other Displaced Persons during the Pandemic: The Need for International Cooperation".

ICMPD delivered the first digital training programme to officers of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan to support the FIA’s Training Academy maintain its operational training in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic to combat trafficking in human beings, prevent irregular migration and efficiently manage Pakistan’s national borders.

The country has a promising new government under Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi but faces a range of challenges connected to its large refugee and irregular migrant population.

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.

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.

On 10 and 11 November 2019, the Migration EU eXpertise Initiative, funded by the European Union and implemented by ICMPD, presented the "Guiding Principles for Shelters Working with Victims of Human Trafficking". They are a result from its latest action in support to the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

On 5 November, ICMPD organised a consultation meeting dealing with the question of how to retain international and domestic talents in Lithuania. The meeting was organised in cooperation with the Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Lithuanian Ministry of Economy and Innovation and the Government Agency Invest Lithuania and funded by the European Commission Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS).

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.

The international regime governing displacement shows a number of gaps, most notably with regard to (internally) displaced people who are not covered by the definition of refugee of the Refugee Convention. These protection gaps translate into solution gaps for displaced people.

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 12 March the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is implementing a number of measures as of 11 March, 2020 to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 to vulnerable groups, to safeguard the health of employees and of its business partners and to contribute to the efforts of the authorities to addressing the pandemic.

The EU-India Cooperation and Dialogue on Migration and Mobility project has published the "Prepare for your study in Europe check-list". The checklist seeks to empower Indian students to ask the right questions and make decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information on preparation, pre-departure and post-graduation issues.