News

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.

The SUMMIT project activities were kicked-off with an international conference on 06 November 2019, titled "Inclusion of Migrants and Refugees to Foster Implementation of the Development-sensitive Migration Policies". A total of 91 representatives from public institutions, private sector, academia and civil society organisations participated to the event.

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 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.

The European Union supports the Ecuadorian Presidency of the Global Forum on Migration and Development 2019 (GFMD) through the MIgration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) Initiative, implemented by ICMPD. In this context, MIEUX together with UNDP and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru, hosted a regional workshop on 16 and 17 October 2019 in Lima.

From 12 to 16 October ICMPD, together with the EU Delegation to Libya and the Libyan Government of National Accord’s National Team for Border Security and Management (NTBSM), co-organised the 5th Civil Society Training Workshop "Advocacy and Awareness-raising Capacities" for Libyan civil society organizations (CSOs) working on migration.

On the occasion of EU Anti-Trafficking Day, 18 October 2019, ICMPD’s Anti-Trafficking Programme stresses the importance of national and regional cooperation and referral to build people’s resilience to human trafficking and ensure an adequate response to trafficking cases.

From the 8th to the 10th of October 2019, and for the first time, trainers from the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) Central Training Center (CTC) delivered a course on document security to personnel from the United Nations’ Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in their headquarters, in Naqoura, South Lebanon.

Migration ranks among the most important and contested public policy issues in many countries. In this context, the policy development process is often far away from the ‘ideal scenario’ and prone to being influenced by election cycles, public opinion or crisis situations.

From 13 to 16 December, the German-funded project "Migration Awareness Raising in Iraq and Pakistan" (MARIP) will organise a workshop on migration reporting for journalists from both countries. Participants will be selected via a competitive process, which accepts applications until 7 November 2019.

From 30 September to 11 October, ten officers from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) were trained and certified at the advance level on document security. The training took place at the IDCentre in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Following the launch of the European Union Global Diaspora Facility, Oleg Chirita, Head of Global Initiatives explores the potential of diaspora engagement for development, scrutinising the history, evidence and rationale of diaspora engagement for development and assessing how ICMPD can capitalise on its experience in diaspora engagement in this new global initiative.

Free movement of labour within the EU has led to unprecedented possibilities for EU citizens to improve their lives by moving to higher-income EU Member States. The consequences for Member States who are mostly origin countries have so far received little attention. Facing increasing challenges on their domestic labour markets, a number of EU Member States have started to develop policies in order to attract back citizens to the country.

On Wednesday 2nd October, ICMPD Director General, Michael Spindelegger, gave a key note speech at a conference entitled "Comprehensive Coordination of the Migration Process" which was held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Bulgaria.

18 October 2016 is the 10th EU Anti-Trafficking Day. In a three-part blog series, ICMPD analyses challenges and future priorities for the EU and its Member States in combating trafficking in human beings. In view of the forthcoming EU Anti-Trafficking Strategy, we're looking at current anti-trafficking efforts in the context of global migration trends and policies, asking the question of how current debates might shape anti-trafficking in the coming years.

Governments are seeking the balance between containing the COVID-19 pandemic and saving the economy. Migrant workers are essential in this regard, and the EU and its member states have to find ways to manage labour migration in an era of restricted mobility.

On 22 April 2020, ICMPD organised the third project steering group (PSG) meeting in the framework of the EU-funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

Millions of people are stranded abroad by COVID-19. The pandemic has triggered the largest repatriation operation in history. As a result, consular services are under tremendous pressure and are forced to work together.

The Mediterranean City to City project (MC2CM) co-organised a webinar on "Leveraging migrants contribution to the emergency and addressing vulnerabilities", on 16 April 2020 in the frame of a series of Live Learning Experiences piloted by UCLG in cooperation with UN Habitat and Metropolis.

The pandemic is teaching border agencies in Europe important lessons about operational preparedness in times of crisis. This has implications for the future in terms of training, staffing, cross-border information sharing and the use of technologies.

ICMPD field operatives track the ramifications of Covid-19 for migration in more than 90 countries. Over the past weeks, they have reported on developments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Here are some of the most important.

On 15 April, ICMPD hosted a meeting of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of South-East Europe to discuss the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trafficking in human beings and the anti-trafficking response in the countries of South-East Europe.

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.