On Friday 28 June, the Director General of ICMPD, Michael Spindelegger, and the ICMPD Silk Routes regional office team met with a high-level Iraqi delegation in Vienna to discuss ongoing cooperation, key areas of work and the strategic pathway forward.
The meeting further discussed the cooperation between ICMPD and the Iraqi government, focusing on identifying priority areas and developing a strategic cooperation plan. The discussion covered thematic areas such as migration governance and border management.
The Iraqi delegation that participated in the meeting included Dr. Ali Al-Yassery the Director General, National Centre for joint strategic planning, National Security Advisory; Mr. Safaa Hussien the Director General of Immigration Affairs, Ministry of Migration and Displacement; Mr. Ismail Dahas the Head of International Organization Department, Ministry of Migration and Displacement; and Dr. Ziad Al-Adhamy the Counsellor of the Iraqi Embassy in Vienna, Austria.
During the meeting, Mr. Spindelegger, emphasized the significant role that the collaboration with the Iraqi government has played in the last years in addressing migration-related issues in the Silk Routes region.
For the past 15 years, ICMPD and Iraq have been working closely on migration, with the cooperation intensifying over the last five years. This later period has seen an increased engagement with Iraqi stakeholders and an expansion of key thematic areas of cooperation, including migration management, border management and reintegration.
Iraq actively participates in the Budapest Process, a migration dialogue where ICMPD serves as the Secretariat. The Budapest Process provides a platform for dialogue and operational cooperation among governments and international organisations to strengthen the discussions and joint efforts on migration and mobility.