News

Vienna, 24 January 2022: Last year saw a rebound to pre-pandemic levels of irregular migration to Europe, with almost 200,000 illegal crossings recorded at EU borders, a 57% rise compared to 2020 and 38% rise compared to 2019. The ICMPD Migration Outlook report 2022 charts what drove these spikes and predicts how and why they will continue into 2022.

On 16 December 2021, ENHANCER organised a meeting for 150 Turkish and Syrian entrepreneurs active in the textile and ready garment, food and innovation sectors to meet with leading brands, representing about 100 companies.

On 9-10 December 2021, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia, Phase 10, (BOMCA 10) held its first regional Kick-off meeting on Cross-Border Cooperation: Best Practices and Outlook for Central Asia.

On 7 December 2021, the Border Management Programme in Central Asia (BOMCA) officially launched the implementation period of its 10th phase in Bishkek. The opening conference gathered over 100 participants representing donor institution, national counterparts, implementing consortium and international stakeholders, providing the floor for presentation of the goals, objectives and thematic priorities of the programme.

Malta, 15 December 2021 - Today, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) officially inaugurated the new premises of their Regional Office for the Mediterranean based in Malta, and launched the Training Institute on Migration Capacity Partnership for the Mediterranean (MCP Med TI). The opening took place with the distinguished presence of Hon. Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs of Malta, Hon. Byron Camilleri, Minister for Home Affairs, National Security and Law Enforcement of Malta and Michael Spindelegger, Director General of ICMPD.
 

On 10 December, at the occasion of the World Human Rights Day, the project stakeholders jointly presented the Management framework for Moldova. The meeting gathered management-level representatives from both enforcing and monitoring bodies, as well as ICMPD project and expert team.

The SBS Ghana project in collaboration with Alliance Francaise d ’Accra organised a two-week tailor made Functional French language course from November 29 – December 10 in Accra, for twelve (12) selected officers from the Ghana Immigration Service. The selected officers were from the International Relations desk at the GIS headquarters and from all the main border posts across Ghana.

On 22 November 2021, the annual Prague Process Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) took place in an online format. Formally hosted by the Czech Republic in its capacity of Prague Process Chair, the SOM gathered officials from the Prague Process countries, the European Commission, the EU Council, EASO, Frontex, IOM and ICMPD. Participating states were invited to comment on the first drafts of the Ministerial Declaration and Action Plan, as well as to reflect on current migration challenges at national, regional and international levels.

On 1 December 2021, the 3rd Coordination Meeting for the Socio-Economic Development Component took place in Ankara, Turkey. The meeting takes place within the Vice-Presidcency Facility for Refugees in Turkey (FRiT). ICMPD in Turkey facilitated the meeting, provided logistical support and gathered the relevant authorities, actors and beneficiaries of the programme. Implemented by ICMPD Turkey and as the beneficiary of the FRiT II Programme, the ICMPD ENHANCER project team provided secretarial support in the organisation of this important event.

On 1 December 2021, ICMPD and the Republic of Malta, in its capacity as 2021 Chair of the ICMPD Steering Group, organised a webinar to explore possible ways of strengthening international cooperation to combat migrant smuggling. The aim of the meeting, which brought together senior experts from ICMPD, the Malta Police Force, EU institutions (Europol, European Commission), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and academia, was to discuss cooperation within the context of a renewed EU Action Plan against Migrant Smuggling (2021-2025). 

Within the framework of the AU-EU Continent-to-Continent Migration and Mobility Dialogue (C2CMMD), the African Institute for Remittances (AIR) and the European Commission (EC) organised a webinar on 25 November 2021, supported by ICMPD. Reiterating their commitment for continued joint efforts both parties highlighted the importance of looking beyond cost reduction to leverage the potential for inclusive and sustainable development, while harnessing opportunities in innovation and digitalisation.

On 25 - 26 November 2021, ICMPD and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) organised the final events of the Forced Return Monitoring III project (FReM III)` online. Since December 2018, ICMPD and Frontex were implementing the FReM III project jointly with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and 22 partner countries. The objective was to increase the operational and procedural effectiveness of the Frontex pool of forced-return monitors (Pool) and to support the national forced-return monitoring systems in Member States.

On 24 November 2021, ICMPD organised the senior expert roundtable “More, better or it does not matter? The promise of legal pathways as a means to reduce irregular migration” to discuss linkages between regular and irregular migration and implications for migration policy. The meeting brought together senior experts and practitioners from EU and ICMPD Member States, public institutions, academia and think tanks.

For the 4^th consecutive year on November 23^rd and 24^th 2021, ICMPD and the Ukrainian State Border Guard Service (SBGS) organised an International Border Management Conference to address ongoing issues in the border management sphere worldwide. This year it took place in Kyiv, with a limit of 50 in-person attendees, while more than 300 registered guests could view the conference unfold from online in their choice of English, French, Russian or Ukrainian.