News

On 13 May, the Ombudsman Office of the Republic of Moldova issued an order to appoint its Torture Prevention Directorate in charge of monitoring forced-returns. For the first time in the country’s history, it formally assigned a dedicated team of forced-return monitors. The act of appointment comes as a result of a series of earlier activities carried out within the framework of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM). Those include a workshop with Moldovan stakeholders on sharing the EU good practices on forced-return monitoring and a meeting on agreeing the standard monitor’s profile for Moldova.

Michael Spindelegger, Director General of ICMPD, about the tremendous impact that COVID-19 has had on global migration, about how ICMPD has had to adapt and about how ICMPD can help to build a well-functioning European asylum system.

On 29 April, ICMPD and the American Business Council organised the virtual round table “Investment opportunities in Nigeria”. The round table was hosted by ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger.

Strengthening the Evidence Base for Migration Policies: A Central Migration Data Management Solution for Jordan (MIDAM)" project held its third Project Steering Group (PSG) meeting on March 22, 2021.

On 15-16 April 2021, ICMPD facilitated a two-day international conference on enhancing interagency cooperation among the national integrated border management (IBM) agencies in Ukraine organised under the EU-funded project “EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)”.

On the 22 March – 1 April 2021, ICMPD facilitated cooperation between the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and Iraq Border Management authorities through a joint initiative to develop the operational and training expertise on document security and identity. The cooperation also promoted the role of local actors in developing intra-regional solutions to capacity development in the area of border management.

With Lithuania increasingly looking to international talent to drive growth, the TALENTAS project helped the government work towards its goal of attracting and retaining more international students, highly skilled migrants, and Lithuanians living abroad.

On 31 March-1 April 2021, ICMPD organised a two-day workshop for the experts of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) aimed at identifying the most relevant concepts, approaches and methodologies for SBGS Human Resources Management Strategy development.

On 29 March, ICMPD signed a partnership agreement with the NATO affiliate Multinational CIMIC Group to provide technical assistance to Lebanese border authorities on civil-military cooperation related themes. The agreement was signed in the framework of the ICMPD project “Strengthening Capability for Integrated Border Management in Lebanon”.

On 24 March, ICMPD organised a workshop for Moldovan stakeholders in the framework of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM) to present them with the EU good practices on monitoring forced returns and identify elements applicable to the country’s context. The workshop gathered representatives from the Moldovan Bureau for Migration and Asylum, People’s Advocates Office of Moldova, the NGO Law Centre of Advocates, as well as ICMPD project and expert team. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the project team organized the workshop remotely.

On 15-19 March 2021, ICMPD and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) organised a training for forced-return monitors at the Border Security Training Centre of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee in Schiphol, the Netherlands. This activity took place within the EU funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

The Mediterranean City-to-City Migration (MC2CM) issued a new Thematic Learning Report drawing on the results of the regional event held online and hosted by Municipality of Seville and the Andalusian Fund of Municipalities for International Solidarity (FAMSI) from 15 to 18 June 2020.

On 17-18 March 2021, the representatives of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine (SBGS) completed a two-day training on enhancing presentation and effective communication skills organised under the EU-funded project "EU Support to Strengthening Integrated Border Management in Ukraine (EU4IBM)" implemented by ICMPD.

On 17 March 2021, the ICMPD Director General Mr. Michael Spindelegger and the Chief of the State Migration Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Vusal Huseynov signed the Seat Agreement between ICMPD and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Within the framework of the Integrated Border Management (IBM) in the Silk Routes Countries project, funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by ICMPD, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan was given 100 books on Basic Knowledge Document Recognition and 100 magnifiers for FIA’s front line Immigration Officers. FIA and ICMPD jointly organised a handover ceremony on Wednesday, 10 March 2021.