News

Preventing irregular migration and addressing the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings, as outlined in the India-EU Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility (CAMM) is a priority area. Equally important is facilitating Indian migration to meet the needs of European companies and the EU economy as a whole.

The intention of the EU’s New Pact on Migration and Asylum is to offer a "fresh start" for a system that manages and "normalises" migration. In the introduction, migration is framed as a "feature of human history" that brings growth, innovation and social dynamism, a vision fully embraced and promoted by the Global Initiatives Programme at ICMPD.

Within the framework of the EU-funded "Strategic and institutional management of migration in Libya" project, ICMPD has published a briefing note entitled "Libya and COVID-19: How the pandemic has affected migrants, refugees and internally displaced persons".

This study is issued by the Center for Migration and Refugee Studies at the American University in Cairo 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.

On 6 October 2020, ICMPD Director General was a keynote speaker at an event organised by the German Embassy in Sofia. German Ambassador Christoph Eichhorn underlined that Germany wants to use the remaining time of Germany’s Council Presidency to push forward rapidly the negotiations of the "New Pact on Migration and Asylum" and invited the ICMPD Director General to share his views on the Pact with more than 20 state representatives and representatives of international organisations.

On Monday 5 October, a ceremony took place at the Lebanese Ministry of Defense, to officially handover search and rescue equipment to a range of Lebanese safety and security agencies. The equipment is a donation from the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM), as part of the technical assistance project Swiss Support to Integrated Border Management (IBM) in Lebanon (Phase 2).

With COVID-19 the second external shock to asylum systems in 5 years, ICMPD held a virtual meeting on 1 October on strengthening asylum procedures to promote human and public security. This was the latest in a series of virtual Member State meetings as part of ICMPD’s Annual Policy Initiative 2020.

Few topics have divided Europe as much in recent years as migration and asylum. The new pact on Migration and Asylum puts migration back on the EU agenda, writes Michael Spindelegger.

While Europe is holding its breath in anticipation of another COVID-19 related lockdown, with people still adapting to closed borders and movement restrictions, the people of Afghanistan are all too familiar with this situation. For Afghans, the pandemic is merely one additional threat to health and life to cope with. Taking a holistic approach, this article will look at how COVID-19 might affect the migration patterns of Afghans, and which new threats and opportunities will develop.

ICMPD Director General Mr. Michael Spindelegger and Ms. Gurlu Jabborzoda, Minister of of Labour, Migration and Employment of Population (MoLMEP) of Tajikistan have exchanged views on migration issues and signed a Memorandum on Understanding.

The "Migration.Communication.Schools" (MIKS) project partners from ICMPD, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the University of Education of Lower Austria met in Vienna on 17 September 2020 to record the interim status of the migration communication project within the initiative "MAKING A CHANGE.TOGETHER" after three years.

The Von der Leyen Commission plans to crack down on widespread abuse of Europe’s asylum system whilst doubling down on relocation as the solution to irregular boat arrivals in the Mediterranean. Can the Schengen area learn the lessons of the 2015-2016 crisis?

On 15 September 2020, the European Union-funded Programme on Border Management in Central Asia (BOMCA) gathered more than 100 high-level stakeholders online to summarise the achievements of thematic work from the five years of the project’s 9th Phase. During the final event, BOMCA presented and disseminated project results and tools for the further strengthening of border management, migration governance, and trade facilitation measures in the Central Asian region.

On 10 September, the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment of Population of the Republic of Tajikistan informed ICMPD that the government gave its approval to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ICMPD. This was the positive news that ICMPD received at an online meeting with a high-level delegation from Tajikistan, headed by the Labour Minister Ms. Gurlu Jabborzoda.

On the 2nd of September 2020, the Signing Ceremony of the National AVR Cooperation Protocol has taken place between the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM), the Turkish Red Crescent (TÜRK KIZILAY), the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).