News

On 15 – 17 November 2023, ICMPD Türkiye has successfully organised two consecutive workshops dedicated to advancing reintegration efforts within Türkiye's National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Mechanism (NAVRR). The workshops held in Ankara were instrumental in fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing among national stakeholders and pertinent Turkish NGOs.

On 19-20 November 2023, the Inspire project team organised a consultative workshop in Accra, Ghana, to discuss the design of the Ghana-Germany skills partnership scheme. The workshop brought together representatives from various stakeholders, including government agencies, civil society, and development partners, to exchange views and experiences on labour migration governance in Ghana and explore the potential of establishing a skills partnership scheme between the two countries.

On 31 October 2023, the Inspire team organised an online consultative workshop to gather insights for the establishment of an initial framework for the skills partnership scheme between Georgia and France. The event built upon a previous workshop held in November 2022 and the bilateral engagements that followed throughout 2023. 

On 6 November 2023, the ICMPD office in Armenia hosted a roundtable discussion on innovative diaspora investments in Armenia under the EU4IMPACT project. The aim of the event was to discuss and brainstorm potential diaspora investment opportunities beyond those provided by the EU4IMPACT project. This includes gauging interest in investing in Armenian securities and investment funds as well as other passive investment options.

On 9 November 2023, ICMPD organised the third international seminar in Warsaw as part of the ICMPD-led project “Comprehensive Support for People in a Vulnerable Situation in the Polish Migration Management System (KOMPLEKS)”, in collaboration with the Polish Migration Forum Foundation (PFM) and the Association for Legal Intervention (SIP).

On 02 November 2023, the third project Steering Group meeting of the EU Support in Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine – Resilience (EU4IBM-Resilience) project took place in Kyiv. The meeting was moderated by the ICMPD Head of Region Eastern Europe and Central Asia Radim Žák. Among the guests were the EU Delegation to Ukraine, the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, the State Customs Service of Ukraine, and other partners and stakeholders.

On 20 October 2023, the Government of India (GoI) and the European Union (EU) took a step forward in their cooperation on migration and mobility by launching Phase II of the India-EU Cooperation and Dialogue on Migration and Mobility project, also known as the India-EU CAMM support project. The launch gathered high-level officials from both India and the EU, EU Member States, as well as various stakeholders, including state-level representatives, the private sector and academia at the Chanakya Hall, Sushma Swaraj Bhavan (Ministry of External Affairs) in New Delhi.

On 18-19 October, ICMPD's Director General, Michael Spindelegger, concluded his first visit to India, marked by a series of high-level engagements and bilateral meetings aimed at exploring opportunities to deepen ICMPD-India relations on migration and mobility. He had the pleasure of meeting ICMPD’s Member States and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) over the two days.

On 16 October 2023, a hybrid event was organised to kick off the EMLINK project that aims at strengthening bilateral cooperation between Belgium and Georgia by designing a pilot temporary mobility model for outstanding entrepreneurs. The event has gathered the main stakeholders of the project representing both countries and key players in the field of migration management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. 

On 13 October 2023, the EU-funded EU4IBM-Resilience project officially handed over 500 sets of mobile radio stations with accessories to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS), worth over half a million euros. The enhancement of technical capacities of the Ukrainian border management services is one of the project's key initiatives financed by the European Union.

Thursday, 5 October, the Migrant Resource Centre Pakistan organised a significant community awareness session in Kharian, district Gujrat. The aim of this event was to raise awareness and empower more than 120 outgoing, aspirant, and returning migrants, and their families. The session focused on the importance of safe and informed migration practices. This event received substantial attention and participation from a diverse range of stakeholders dedicated to supporting migrant communities. Distinguished attendees included representatives from the EU Delegation, the Embassies of Norway and France, the Federal Investigation Agency, the Social Welfare and Labour Departments, local community organizations, and the media.

A central challenge of a modern-day response to human trafficking, nationally and internationally, is putting in place co-operative frameworks to enable state actors to fulfil their obligations to protect and promote the human rights of trafficked persons and co-ordinate their efforts in a strategic partnership with civil society. On the occasion of the European Union (EU) Anti-Trafficking Day on 18 October 2023, the Anti-Trafficking Programme of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) stresses the importance of cross-border and multi-agency cooperation in combating trafficking in human beings and protecting its victims.

With an eagerness to promote access to higher education and foster social harmony, the European Union has unveiled the 'European Union Scholarships Project.' Spearheading this initiative is the ICMPD Country Office in Türkiye, in collaboration with Ankara and Hasan Kalyoncu Universities, as well as Marmara Municipalities Union, as co-applicant consortium members, covering different regions in Türkiye.

On 2-3 October, ICMPD Director General, Mr. Michael Spindelegger, embarked on a mission to Ankara, Türkiye. This visit involved a series of productive meetings and engagements designed to promote cooperation and tackle key issues.

The eighth annual Vienna Migration Conference (VMC2023) took place on 10 and 11 October 2023, gathering key stakeholders from the migration policy world. Discussions centred on pressing topics in migration governance, including how to facilitate safe and regular migration, protecting migrants’ rights at borders, what the future of work might look like, and the role of policy in securing needed workers. A range of speakers took stock of where we stand and where we need to go, sharing successful initiatives and ideas for the road ahead.