News

Free movement in the Schengen area is a key achievement of EU integration. The Schengen evaluation and monitoring mechanism (SEMM) is important to ensuring the trust among Member States that is fundamental for the removal of internal borders. ICMPD has assessed the current approach in a new report.

From 16-19 November 2020, ICMPD hosted the Vienna Migration Conference entitled "Schengen, asylum reform and Europe’s migration diplomacy: Has COVID-19 changed everything?" The conference took place in an online production adapted especially for the pandemic and hosted a record number of participants.

The 3rd International Border Management Conference took place on 23-24 November, 2020. Organised by ICMPD, sponsored by the European Union via several EU-financed projects, the event welcomed numerous high-level speakers. More than 250 participants from over 50 countries followed the two-day conference remotely in four different languages.

On 17-19 November 2020, ICMPD organised two trainings on the important topics of consular crisis management and migration governance. Respectively the two events took place under the framework of the EU-funded project "Strategic and Institutional Management of Migration in Libya".

On 24 November 2020, ICMPD organised the fourth project steering group (PSG) meeting in the framework of the EU-funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

On 20 November 2020, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) and State Customs Service (SCS) of Ukraine completed two-day training on "Monitoring, evaluation and quality management" organized under the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management (IBM) in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" implemented by ICMPD.

The Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III) project just released a report on the Assessment of the Day-to-Day Operations and Management of the Pool of Forced-Return Monitors at Frontex. The assessment was based on a multi-method study.

The signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) took place in a virtual meeting on 19 November 2020. This step will contribute to strengthening the ongoing cooperation.

A new cooperation framework between ICMPD and the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) enhances and facilitates effective cooperation on matters related to asylum and migration management between the two long-standing partners.

On 10-11 November 2020, the 3rd Euro-Mediterranean Communicator’s Workshop was held in the framework of the DG NEAR flagship initiative EUROMED Migration IV (EMM4). The event was organized in collaboration with the Club of Venice and follows the success of the previous editions held in Tunis in 2018 and Athens in 2019. This year, the event took place in an online format due to the travel restrictions imposed by the current COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday 9 November, the Embassy of Switzerland in Lebanon, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), and ICMPD, launched a cycle of gender awareness sessions at the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) Military Academy in Beirut for the second year cadets enrolled in 2020. This is the first promotion in which women and men train together as officers at the Academy.

On 5th November, the State Secretariat for Migration of Switzerland and ICMPD held a meeting on recent approaches in addressing radicalisation. This was the latest in a series of virtual meetings as part of ICMPD’s Annual Policy Initiative 2020 (API).

"Schengen, asylum reform and Europe’s migration diplomacy: Has COVID-19 changed everything?" Now in its fifth year, the Vienna Migration Conference organised by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), will for the first time take place online, in a production adapted specially for the pandemic on 16-19 November 2020.

A ceremony for the signing of Country Cooperation Agreement between Pakistan and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) took place at the Embassy of Pakistan, Vienna, Austria on 10 November 2020.

ICMPD has released the "Study on Libyans living abroad: Profiling of Libyans living abroad to develop a roadmap for strategic and institutional engagement", which was developed within the framework of the EU-funded "Strategic and institutional management of migration in Libya" project. The Financial Times observed in an editorial in January 2015 that "(T)the Libyan diaspora, a repository of enormous talent, remains largely untapped ". The aim of this research is hence to shed light on this little explored community and on the current institutional framework for their engagement. This study is designed to serve as first step towards developing Libya’s engagement strategy towards Libyans living abroad.