News

The joint EU-ICMPD Migration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) Initiative, one of ICMPD’s longest-running projects, initiates a new phase for an initial three-year period. The joint Initiative is a capacity building facility that provides partners in Africa, Asia, the EU Neighbourhood, and Latin America and the Caribbean with short-term, technical assistance through tailored activities that match the expertise required by the requesting partner country.

Governments are seeking the balance between containing the COVID-19 pandemic and saving the economy. Migrant workers are essential in this regard, and the EU and its member states have to find ways to manage labour migration in an era of restricted mobility.

On 22 April 2020, ICMPD organised the third project steering group (PSG) meeting in the framework of the EU-funded project Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III).

Millions of people are stranded abroad by COVID-19. The pandemic has triggered the largest repatriation operation in history. As a result, consular services are under tremendous pressure and are forced to work together.

The Mediterranean City to City project (MC2CM) co-organised a webinar on "Leveraging migrants contribution to the emergency and addressing vulnerabilities", on 16 April 2020 in the frame of a series of Live Learning Experiences piloted by UCLG in cooperation with UN Habitat and Metropolis.

The pandemic is teaching border agencies in Europe important lessons about operational preparedness in times of crisis. This has implications for the future in terms of training, staffing, cross-border information sharing and the use of technologies.

ICMPD field operatives track the ramifications of Covid-19 for migration in more than 90 countries. Over the past weeks, they have reported on developments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. Here are some of the most important.

On 15 April, ICMPD hosted a meeting of the Network of Anti-Trafficking Coordinators of South-East Europe to discuss the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on the trafficking in human beings and the anti-trafficking response in the countries of South-East Europe.

As the coronavirus has upended life as we know it around the globe, asylum systems have not been spared. With national governments acting in different ways to stem its spread, the pandemic has resulted in a series of measures that have far-reaching consequences for asylum systems and applicants for international protection.

Due to Covid-19 lockdown, the importance of ‘key workers’ performing ‘systemically relevant’ jobs is clearer. Many of these are migrants, most of them are women. An ICMPD data survey illustrates the importance of refugees to alleviate the disruption caused by the pandemic.

Sars-CoV-2 (Covid-19) is doing to travel and migration what the 2008 financial crash did to banks and the flow of capital. Instead of a ‘credit crunch’, the world economy is crippled by a global mobility shutdown. The road back will not be easy.

Commissioned under the EU-funded EUROMED Migration IV (EMM4) programme, this study intends to comprehensively map and classify existing statistical sources on migration in the Euro-Med region.

In the context of increased polarisation of the migration topic among the public and policy sphere in Europe, communication on migration has gained importance: In order to reduce information gaps, build trust and gain acceptance for migration policies, innovative ways of engaging the public are needed. An initiative from Austria lends itself as a good example.

On 12 March the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is implementing a number of measures as of 11 March, 2020 to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 to vulnerable groups, to safeguard the health of employees and of its business partners and to contribute to the efforts of the authorities to addressing the pandemic.

The EU-India Cooperation and Dialogue on Migration and Mobility project has published the "Prepare for your study in Europe check-list". The checklist seeks to empower Indian students to ask the right questions and make decisions based on accurate and up-to-date information on preparation, pre-departure and post-graduation issues.