News

The joint EU-ICMPD Migration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) Initiative, one of ICMPD’s longest-running projects, initiates a new phase for an initial three-year period. The joint Initiative is a capacity building facility that provides partners in Africa, Asia, the EU Neighbourhood, and Latin America and the Caribbean with short-term, technical assistance through tailored activities that match the expertise required by the requesting partner country.

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.

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.

On 15-16 April 2021, ICMPD facilitated a two-day international conference on enhancing interagency cooperation among the national integrated border management (IBM) agencies in Ukraine organised under the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”.

On 29 March, ICMPD signed a partnership agreement with the NATO affiliate Multinational CIMIC Group to provide technical assistance to Lebanese border authorities on civil-military cooperation related themes. The agreement was signed in the framework of the ICMPD project “Strengthening Capability for Integrated Border Management in Lebanon”.

On 17 March 2021, the ICMPD Director General Mr. Michael Spindelegger and the Chief of the State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Vusal Huseynov signed the Seat Agreement between ICMPD and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

On 17-18 March 2021, the representatives of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) completed a two-day training on enhancing presentation and effective communication skills organised under the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" implemented by ICMPD.

The Mediterranean City-to-City Migration (MC2CM) issued a new Thematic Learning Report drawing on the results of the regional event held online and hosted by Municipality of Seville and the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI) from 15 to 18 June 2020.

On 15-19 March 2021, ICMPD and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) organised a training for forced-return monitors at the Border Security Training Centre of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee in Schiphol, the Netherlands. This activity took place within the EU funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

Within the framework of the EU-funded "Strategic and institutional management of migration in Libya" project, ICMPD has published a briefing note entitled "Libya and COVID-19: How the pandemic has affected migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons".

This study is issued by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo on behalf of EUROMED Migration IV, a programme committed to establishing a constructive framework for dialogue and technical exchange on migration policy in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

On 6 October 2020, ICMPD Director General was a keynote speaker at an event organised by the German Embassy in Sofia. German Ambassador Christoph Eichhorn underlined that Germany wants to use the remaining time of Germany’s Council Presidency to push forward rapidly the negotiations of the "New Pact on Migration and Asylum" and invited the ICMPD Director General to share his views on the Pact with more than 20 state representatives and representatives of international organisations.

On Monday 5 October, a ceremony took place at the Lebanese Ministry of Defense, to officially handover search and rescue equipment to a range of Lebanese safety and security agencies. The equipment is a donation from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), as part of the technical assistance project Swiss Support to Integrated Border Management (IBM) in Lebanon (Phase 2).

With COVID-19 the second external shock to asylum systems in 5 years, ICMPD held a virtual meeting on 1 October on strengthening asylum procedures to promote human and public security. This was the latest in a series of virtual Member State meetings as part of ICMPD’s Annual Policy Initiative 2020.

Few topics have divided Europe as much in recent years as migration and asylum. The new pact on Migration and Asylum puts migration back on the EU agenda, writes Michael Spindelegger.

While Europe is holding its breath in anticipation of another COVID-19 related lockdown, with people still adapting to closed borders and movement restrictions, the people of Afghanistan are all too familiar with this situation. For Afghans, the pandemic is merely one additional threat to health and life to cope with. Taking a holistic approach, this article will look at how COVID-19 might affect the migration patterns of Afghans, and which new threats and opportunities will develop.

The "Migration.Communication.Schools" (MIKS) project partners from ICMPD, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the University of Education of Lower Austria met in Vienna on 17 September 2020 to record the interim status of the migration communication project within the initiative "MAKING A CHANGE.TOGETHER" after three years.

The Von der Leyen Commission plans to crack down on widespread abuse of Europe’s asylum system whilst doubling down on relocation as the solution to irregular boat arrivals in the Mediterranean. Can the Schengen area learn the lessons of the 2015-2016 crisis?

On 24 March, ICMPD organised a workshop for Moldovan stakeholders in the framework of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM) to present them with the EU good practices on monitoring forced returns and identify elements applicable to the country’s context. The workshop gathered representatives from the Moldovan Bureau for Migration and Asylum, People’s Advocates Office of Moldova, the NGO Law Centre of Advocates, as well as ICMPD project and expert team. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the project team organized the workshop remotely.

OFID – the OPEC Fund for International Development – yesterday hosted a roundtable at its Vienna headquarters to discuss policy options to address the interrelated challenges of development and displacement.

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) gears up to publish its recommendations for the next five years addressed to EU decision-makers. Now is the time for leaders to press the reset button to break political gridlocks on EU migration policy, and come together through pragmatic implementation and innovative cooperation.

In its fourth year, the "Vienna Migration Conference" organised by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), convenes a broad number of decision makers and key stakeholders to discuss pragmatic, constructive and future-oriented recommendations for the next five years of migration policy making in and for Europe.

Germany becomes the 18th Member State of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).