ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab met with HE Mr Vincenzo Mascioli, State Secretary for Migration of Switzerland on 13 January 2026. The meeting reaffirmed the strong partnership with Switzerland, a founding ICMPD Member State and long-standing strategic partner, and provided an opportunity to exchange views on key migration challenges in Europe and beyond. Discussions focused on Switzerland’s migration priorities and ICMPD’s strategic direction for 2026; and key areas of cooperation including Ukraine, the expansion of the Migration Resource Centres, and the Swiss Chairmanship of the Rabat Process in 2026.

ICMPD Director General Susanne Raab met with HE Minister of Interior of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Mr Rebar Ahmad, to sign a Cooperation Agreement in strengthening strategic engagement in the areas of migration management, reintegration, and capacity building.

Susanne Raab joins the International Centre for Migration Policy Development as Director General, effective 1 January 2026.

Migrant smuggling and human trafficking are among the most complex and urgent challenges shaping mobility between Africa and Europe. Both crimes are highly adaptive, continuously evolving in response to political, economic, and technological shifts. They thrive on structural inequalities and systemic vulnerabilities fuelled by conflict, socio-economic disparities, discrimination, human rights violations, governance gaps, political instability, and climate shocks. As these conditions intensify globally, they expand both the number of people at risk and the geographic scope where victimization and exploitation can occur.

ICMPD commemorates this year’s International Migrants Day, ten years after the so-called migration crisis of 2015, an event that has left profound marks on the political and social landscape of Europe and its neighbouring regions. The crisis and a series of subsequent events shifted discourses and posed growing challenges that called for agility and innovation in policy responses.

Three regional migration Dialogues are further strengthening the responses to human trafficking and migrant smuggling across African and European routes. The Khartoum, Rabat, and Niamey Processes marked an important milestone in interregional cooperation to enhance policies and cooperation to align with realities on the ground, ensuring that responses to these crimes remain fit for purpose.