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While the COVID19 pandemic affected all countries, cities and societies, it particularly took a toll on vulnerable populations, people on the move, migrants and refugees. It put into question the central objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well as the Global Compacts for Migration and Refugees to "leave no one behind". Along the same lines, COVID19 demonstrated the significance of adopting whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to achieve the Global Compacts’ goals, especially as the pandemic exacerbated pre-existing difficulties, such as homelessness, poverty, unemployment, and inequalities of all sorts.

ICMPD Turkey releases six new policy briefs on Turkey, offering an analysis of major trends and policy development in 2020 in relation to Irregular Migration, Legal Migration, Asylum and Refugees, Trafficking in Human Beings, Migration and Development and Migration and Civil Society.

New field research conducted under the "Technical Assistance for Cooperation with Civil Society in the Field of Migration Project" sheds light on the potential for further strengthening cooperation between CSOs and public institutions in Turkey for better migration management.

A new cooperation framework between the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the European University Institute (EUI) to enhance effective cooperation in the area of migration governance between the long-term partners.

2021 will be another challenging year for EU migration policy. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused a global health crisis of historic proportions but is also the event that impacted International migration in 2020 more than any other. It will continue to shape the migration year of 2021 according to the “ICMPD Migration Outlook 2021”, a landmark publication released by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

At the end of 2020, with the support of a team of regional experts, EUDiF completed a global mapping of diaspora engagement, producing over 100 country factsheets spanning 6 regions: Africa, Asia, Central Asia & Easter Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean, and the Pacific. The research gathered information on different policy frameworks, approaches and priorities in diaspora engagement and identified many opportunities for further research, discussion and peer-to-peer learning. A recurring question from both this research and diaspora-related research and dialogue over the years is: What is the role of the homeland government in diaspora engagement? And, linked to this, how do institutional frameworks relate to effectiveness of government-diaspora engagement?

One of the innovative tools proposed by the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum is the Talent Partnerships conceived as a single framework aiming to "offer cooperation with partner countries and help boost mutually-beneficial international mobility". In this expert voice series, ICMPD explores how Talent Partnerships could be shaped, put in motion and brought to fruition by sharing experience, research findings and practices. In this first article, reflections are made on the lessons learnt from the implementation of several Pilot Projects on Legal Migration, within the framework of ICMPD’s Mobility Partnership Facility (MPF), funded by the European Commission, Directorate General Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME).

This study is issued by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies on behalf of EUROMED Migration IV, a programme committed to establishing a constructive framework for dialogue and technical exchange on migration policy in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

In the framework of the EU funded project EU Support for the Effective Management of Green and Blue Borders in Albania (EU4SAFEALB) implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the first Project Steering Committee meeting took place on 12 January 2021.

ENHANCER Project Expanded to Include Employment Activities - Final contracts under FRIT II funds have been officially signed on December 17, 2020, including the expansion of ENHANCER Project to cover job creation activities.

Under the guidance of ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger, the organisation saw a significant growth in staff, projects and financing. ICMPD was also able to gain three new member states and increase its presence in the field.

The joint EU-ICMPD Migration EU eXpertise Initiative has released a new publication ‘Building Bridges – Capacity Building on Migration and the MIgration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) 2009 – 2019’ offering concrete examples of the impact and value of capacity building on migration during its first ten years of implementation. The publication is available in English, French and Spanish.

The project is the first-ever aviation security action funded by the EU in Lebanon. The funding started on 1 September 2018 and is part of an EU commitment to support the Lebanese security sector and its longstanding engagement to stability and security in Lebanon covering the areas of rule of law, enhancement of security and counter terrorism. A step forward to combat terrorism is to bolster airport security at Rafic Hariri International Airport and the EU is providing 3.5 million EUR for this purpose.

In December 2020, ICMPD within the framework of the "Strategic and institutional management of migration in Libya" project held fruitful meetings in Tripoli with Mr Al-Shaibani, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Directors for European Affairs, International Organisations and International Cooperation; the Ministry of Labour; the Prime Minister’s Office; and the National Team for Border Security and Management.

On 3 December 2020, representatives from forced-return monitoring bodies and return enforcing institutions from 21 European countries, the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM), the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) gathered during a remote Thematic Workshop on Children in Forced-Return Operations. ICMPD and FRA jointly organised the workshop within the framework of the Forced-Return Monitoring III (FReM III) project. The aim was to enhance the monitors’ knowledge and capacities in monitoring forced-return operations where children are present.