News

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 Turkey 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 Turkey 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.

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.

Bolstering gender sensitive approaches within Lebanese Security Agencies has been a top priority for ICMPD’s Netherlands’ Assistance Project ever since its development. Supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands in Lebanon, a fervent believer in the value of active female participation, the Project has strived to shape its whole assistance in a way that favours female inclusion and empowerment.

This year’s Brdo Process Ministerial meeting, held on 4 March 2020, was dedicated to the regional cooperation in the fight against trafficking in human beings and the measures for prevention and investigation of online child sexual abuse.

Form 28-4 July 2020 the International Summer School on Migration will take place in Georgia. The summer school is organised and implemented by the ENIGMMA 2 project and the Prague Process Dialogue Analyses and Training in Action.

An assessment of the Ghanaian border management and security system was conducted from 18-28 February 2020, in the framework of the "Strengthening Border Security in Ghana" project (SBS Ghana), funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) and implemented by ICMPD.

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".

The project "Improving Entrepreneurial Capacity for Sustaniable Socio-Economic Integration" (ENHANCER) is an EU-funded action, aimed at fostering opportunities for entrepreneurs by giving them access to national and global markets.

On May 26, 2020, ICMPD handed over personal protective equipment to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine who are the first point of contact for travellers entering Ukraine.

One of the more sinister aspects of the global pandemic is the spread of deliberately misleading information online. ICMPD’s Regional Office for the Mediterranean considers how disinformation networks work to falsely portray migrants as vectors for the disease.

The first year of implementation of the Horizon 2020 Transnational Figurations of Displacement (TRAFIG) research project received an encouraging review by the donor, the European Commission.

On 12 March the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. In order to support the measures being implemented by our host country, the Republic of Austria, and the other countries where ICMPD has duty stations, we took a number of measures to protect our employees and stop the virus from spreading further, including working from home.

On 7 of May 2020 in Kyiv, ICMPD organized a kick-off meeting on business processes analysis and re-engineering thus launching the optimization process of partners’ functionalities. Expert support to national agencies has been rendered through the European Union Project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management (IBM) in Ukraine".

Due to Covid-19 lockdown, the importance of ‘key workers’ performing ‘systemically relevant’ jobs is clearer. Many of these are migrants, most of them are women. An ICMPD data survey illustrates the importance of refugees to alleviate the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Sars-CoV-2 (Covid-19) is doing to travel and migration what the 2008 financial crash did to banks and the flow of capital. Instead of a ‘credit crunch’, the world economy is crippled by a global mobility shutdown. The road back will not be easy.

Commissioned under the EU-funded EUROMED Migration IV (EMM4) programme, this study intends to comprehensively map and classify existing statistical sources on migration in the Euro-Med region.

In the context of increased polarisation of the migration topic among the public and policy sphere in Europe, communication on migration has gained importance: In order to reduce information gaps, build trust and gain acceptance for migration policies, innovative ways of engaging the public are needed. An initiative from Austria lends itself as a good example.

On 23-24 October 2019, ICMPD organised the 2nd International Conference on Comprehensive Border Governance in Yerevan, Armenia. The Conference was attended by the experts with practical and technical professional backgrounds, including those from academia, policy-makers and decision-takers from various public institutions and agencies, as well as private sector representatives working in border governance.

On Thursday 24th October, ICMPD Director General, Michael Spindelegger, spoke at the opening plenary of the Europe Conference ‘From Tampere 20 to Tampere 2.0: Towards a New Programme (2020–2024) for EU Migration and Asylum Policies 20 years after the Tampere Conclusions?’ which focused on highlighting relevant proposals and ideas for the next EU Commission.

Within the framework of the Integrated Border Management (IBM) in the Silk Routes Countries project, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by ICMPD, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan was given 100 books on Basic Knowledge Document Recognition and 100 magnifiers for FIA’s front line Immigration Officers. FIA and ICMPD jointly organised a handover ceremony on Wednesday, 10 March 2021.

The Handbook on Reporting Migration has been developed within the framework of the MOMENTA 2 (Migration Media Training Academy) project, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office and implemented by ICMPD in 2020.