News

The Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III) project just released a report on the Assessment of the Day-to-Day Operations and Management of the Pool of Forced-Return Monitors at Frontex. The assessment was based on a multi-method study.

The signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) took place in a virtual meeting on 19 November 2020. This step will contribute to strengthening the ongoing cooperation.

From 23 to 27 November 2020, European Union experts jointly with the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) and the State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine completed the second field assessment mission to the border crossing points (BCPs) in Ukraine. The mission is the second activity on the spot to analyse the control processes and procedures at BCPs and is a part of wider activities of the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" implemented by ICMPD.

The 3rd International Border Management Conference took place on 23-24 November, 2020. Organised by ICMPD, sponsored by the European Union via several EU-financed projects, the event welcomed numerous high-level speakers. More than 250 participants from over 50 countries followed the two-day conference remotely in four different languages.

On 17-19 November 2020, ICMPD organised two trainings on the important topics of consular crisis management and migration governance. Respectively the two events took place under the framework of the EU-funded project "Strategic and Institutional Management of Migration in Libya".

On Monday 9 November, the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), and ICMPD, launched a cycle of gender awareness sessions at the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Military Academy in Beirut for the second year cadets enrolled in 2020. This is the first promotion in which women and men train together as officers at the Academy.

On 24 November 2020, ICMPD organised the fourth project steering group (PSG) meeting in the framework of the EU-funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

On 5th November, the State Secretariat for Migration of Switzerland and ICMPD held a meeting on recent approaches in addressing radicalisation. This was the latest in a series of virtual meetings as part of ICMPD’s Annual Policy Initiative 2020 (API).

"Schengen, asylum reform and Europe’s migration diplomacy: Has COVID-19 changed everything?" Now in its fifth year, the Vienna Migration Conference organised by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), will for the first time take place online, in a production adapted specially for the pandemic on 16-19 November 2020.

A ceremony for the signing of Country Cooperation Agreement between Pakistan and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) took place at the Embassy of Pakistan, Vienna, Austria on 10 November 2020.

It is February 2024. Ahead of elections to the European Parliament, several commentators are pointing to the unlikely success of the EU’s migration policy. How did it happen?

The Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III) project just released a Gaps and Needs Analysis Report, analysing the national monitoring systems in twenty-two EU Member States and Schengen Associated Countries.

On the 10th of February 2021, ICMPD Jordan organised the first steering committee meeting for the "Document Security Jordan" project, financed by the Netherlands. The event was held in Amman with representatives from the Jordanian Borders and Residency Department (BRD), the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as donor and ICMPD as the implementing organisation with an online format with representatives located in Vienna.

From 26 to 28 January 2021, ICMPD organised a workshop in Tripoli with four local networks of Libyan CSOs working on migration, focused on strengthening and operationalizing the networks. The activity took place under the framework of the EU-funded project "Strategic and Institutional Management of Migration in Libya".

Despite the difficult circumstances brought about by COVID-19, a series of two advanced level trainings on document security were delivered to officers of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan by a Border Management and Security Senior Advisor of ICMPD and an external expert. The trainings were conducted under the framework of the European Union-funded project Integrated Border Management in the Silk Routes Countries (IBM Silk Routes).

While the COVID19 pandemic affected all countries, cities and societies, it particularly took a toll on vulnerable populations, people on the move, migrants and refugees. It put into question the central objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the Global Compacts for Migration and Refugees to "leave no one behind". Along the same lines, COVID19 demonstrated the significance of adopting whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to achieve the Global Compacts’ goals, especially as the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing difficulties, such as homelessness, poverty, unemployment, and inequalities of all sorts.

ICMPD Türkiye releases six new policy briefs on Türkiye, offering an analysis of major trends and policy development in 2020 in relation to Irregular Migration, Legal Migration, Asylum and Refugees, Trafficking in Human Beings, Migration and Development and Migration and Civil Society.

New field research conducted under the "Technical Assistance for Cooperation with Civil Society in the Field of Migration Project" sheds light on the potential for further strengthening cooperation between CSOs and public institutions in Türkiye for better migration management.

The programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by the ICMPD, supports EU Member States and the European Neighbourhood Instrument Southern Partner Countries (ENI SPCs) in establishing a comprehensive, constructive and operational dialogue and co-operation framework on migration, with a particular focus on reinforcing instruments and capacities to develop and implement evidence-based migration policies.

Baghdad, Iraq: With the support of the European Union and co-funding from Norway, and drawing on its extensive experience in setting up, operating and developing such Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is able to utilise this knowledge and experience in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs for the benefit of Iraqi citizens.

Today, the world celebrates the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. The day marks 71 years from the adoption of the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others (resolution 317(IV) from 2 December 1949).

Free movement in the Schengen area is a key achievement of EU integration. The Schengen evaluation and monitoring mechanism (SEMM) is important to ensuring the trust among Member States that is fundamental for the removal of internal borders. ICMPD has assessed the current approach in a new report.

From 16-19 November 2020, ICMPD hosted the Vienna Migration Conference entitled "Schengen, asylum reform and Europe’s migration diplomacy: Has COVID-19 changed everything?" The conference took place in an online production adapted especially for the pandemic and hosted a record number of participants.

A new cooperation framework between ICMPD and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) enhances and facilitates effective cooperation on matters related to asylum and migration management between the two long-standing partners.

On 10-11 November 2020, the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Communicator’s Workshop was held in the framework of the DG NEAR flagship initiative EUROMED Migration IV (EMM4). The event was organized in collaboration with the Club of Venice and follows the success of the previous editions held in Tunis in 2018 and Athens in 2019. This year, the event took place in an online format due to the travel restrictions imposed by the current COVID-19 pandemic.