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On 13-14 September 2018 the Austrian Ministry of Interior hosts a conference in Vienna under the auspices of its presidency of the Council of the European Union. The conference is dedicated to cooperation with third countries and is titled “Security and Migration – Promoting Partnership and Resilience”. It brings together home affairs ministers of EU member states and third countries as well as representatives of the relevant EU agencies and international organisations. 

When Nigerian migration is discussed in the European context – for example, at policy forums and research conferences, or in the media - a number of key issues are usually mentioned. These include: the experiences of Nigerian people transiting through Libya in order to reach Europe by sea; sex trafficking of Nigerian women by means of juju oaths; and the assumption of a widespread desire to migrate to Europe among the young and growing populations of the region. 

In 2018, the Joint EU-ICMPD “Migration EU Expertise” (MIEUX) Initiative celebrates its 10th anniversary. MIEUX, as a veritable pioneering capacity development global Initiative, has tremendously evolved since its inception, becoming a remarkable EU peer-to-peer expert facility with worldwide recognition. MIEUX’s transformation resonates with the opportunities and challenges that the EU and its partner countries share and corresponds to the shifts in migration governance, discourses, policies and institutions all over the globe. The 2017 Annual Report reflects this evolution by illustrating how the programme contributes to enhancing migration governance, furthering EU strategic priorities, and acting as a catalyst for knowledge exchange between migration experts. To mark the launch of the 2017 Annual Report, Oleg Chirita, Programme Coordinator of Global Initiatives, shares ten lessons learnt and their significance for the future of capacity building in the field of migration. 

Trafficking in human beings (THB) is a complex issue. At the heart of trafficking is the exploitation of one human being against their will by another, yet a large number of legal and social issues are linked with this process. As a result, trafficking can simultaneously be considered an organised crime challenge, a human rights violation, an issue linked with migration, labour market dynamics, gender or economic development. Each of these perspectives applies a different “narrative” to explain what human trafficking is and why it occurs. These different narratives sometimes present challenges for media professionals and journalists reporting on THB, and can lead to inaccurate or damaging representations of trafficking in the media.

ICMPD Director General, Dr. Michael Spindelegger, reaffirmed the organization's commitment to supporting Lebanon in various fields of relevance to migration, particularly within the context of the on-going refugees crisis and its ramifications in Lebanon.

Mais de 70 representantes do governo (municipal, estadual e federal), da sociedade civil e da comunidade científica participaram, nos dias 27 e 28 de abril de 2016, do “Curso sobre migração, tráfico de pessoas e atendimento a pessoas vulneráveis à exploração”, realizado na Universidade Federal de Roraima, em Boa Vista. O curso insere-se no âmbito do projeto MT Brasil, financiado pela União Europeia, o Ministério da Justiça do Brasil (MJ), o Ministério do Trabalho e Previdência Social do Brasil (MTPS) e o Escritório Federal para Migrações da Suíça, e implementado pelo Centro Internacional para o Desenvolvimento de Políticas Migratórias (ICMPD).

More than 70 representatives of Brazilian local, state and federal governments, civil society and the scientific community participated in the "training on migration, trafficking in human beings and assistance to people vulnerable to exploitation" held at the Federal University of Roraima (UFRR), Boa Vista on 27 and 28 April.

Six months after the Valletta Summit of Migration there are concerns that the Mediterranean could again be the epicentre of irregular migration-flows. With this in mind, the Foreign Minister of Malta, George Vella, and the Director General of ICMPD (International Center for Migration Policy Development), Michael Spindelegger, opened the organisation’s “Coordination and Cooperation Center for Migration in the Mediterranean” in Valetta.

Today the European Union Delegation to Jordan and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) launches the EUR 2.5 million project “Support to the Mobility Partnership between the European Union and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (JEMPAS)’’. The three-year project, funded by the EU and implemented by ICMPD, will focus on two key areas: Engagement with Jordanian expatriates abroad and preventing trafficking in human beings.

Sessions on future perspectives of European migration policy under way

On 27th March the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) released the 2017 Vienna Migration Conference report. The Vienna Migration Conference (VMC) is ICMPD’s flagship event to discuss critical migration issues and to drive policy development across Member States. The 2017 VMC was held at the Austrian Academy of Sciences on 23–24 October. The publication summarises discussions, findings and conclusions presented at the VMC, and outlines a couple of recommendations to strengthen migration partnerships as frameworks for “safe, orderly and regular migration”.

ICMPD presents five Migration Partnership Priorities

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).

2021 will be another challenging year for EU migration policy. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused a global health crisis of historic proportions but is also the event that impacted International migration in 2020 more than any other. It will continue to shape the migration year of 2021 according to the “ICMPD Migration Outlook 2021”, a landmark publication released by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

ICMPD Director General, Michael Spindelegger, after meeting with senior officials, chiefly the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Tammam Salam today said that it is absolutely key to seek greater European and international support for Lebanon's efforts to address the consequences of the Syrian Crisis.

Speaking about the increasing numbers of people identified as victims of modern slavery and human trafficking in the UK, the British National Crime Agency (NCA)’s Vulnerabilities Director Will Kerr stated that “the more we look, the more we find" (BBC News, “Modern Slavery and trafficking ‘in every UK town and city’”, 10 August 2017). This statement highlights both the extent of the problem and the limitations of relying on law enforcement alone to combat it. 

Michael Spindelegger, Director General of ICMPD, about the tremendous impact that COVID-19 has had on global migration, about how ICMPD has had to adapt and about how ICMPD can help to build a well-functioning European asylum system.

On 13 May, the Ombudsman Office of the Republic of Moldova issued an order to appoint its Torture Prevention Directorate in charge of monitoring forced-returns. For the first time in the country’s history, it formally assigned a dedicated team of forced-return monitors. The act of appointment comes as a result of a series of earlier activities carried out within the framework of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM). Those include a workshop with Moldovan stakeholders on sharing the EU good practices on forced-return monitoring and a meeting on agreeing the standard monitor’s profile for Moldova.

On 19 – 20 May, a meeting organised in Abuja under the auspices of the Working Group on Return and Reintegration (WGRR), chaired by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons of Nigeria (NCFRMI), gathered 33 participants from government institutions and civil society organisations from around the country, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) as well as international organisations.

On 17 May 2021, ICMPD within the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" launched the pilot initiative on prevention of cross-border crime at the green border between Ukraine and Romania. The pilot includes elements of technical re-equipment as well as joint capacity building and anti-corruption trainings implemented on the basis of the new infrastructure.

On 26 May, the EUROMED Migration V Programme (EMM5) organised an online Technical Briefing on the New EU Agenda for the Mediterranean. The event was attended by over 50 representatives of 22 EMM5 participating countries and by representatives of international organisations and European agencies.

As the pandemic reaches different stages in different countries, its longer-term impacts on the migration and employment landscape, as well as economic recovery, will become increasingly pressing priorities to address – and ones that will necessitate revisiting cooperation on labour migration schemes. In this context, the Republic of Malta and ICMPD, through its Member States Programme, organised an expert discussion on 27 May 2021 that explored the future of legal migration policies, with a focus on enhanced cooperation and partnerships that are responsive to the post-COVID-19 reality.