Search ICMPD Publications

The EU could see an influx of up to four million more Ukrainians in 2023, and Russia will seek to further weaponise migration from North Africa and the Middle East. These are just two of the forecasts made in the latest Migration Outlook report 2023 from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

This report attempts to identify patterns and contradictions linked to internal displacement before and after 24 February 2022. It looks at the factors determining the legal status of IDP in the past, and the dynamics and peculiarities witnessed since the time of Russia’s invasion. The second part discusses the administrative, integration, financial and infrastructural traps that IDPs are facing and proposes concrete recommendations to resolve them. It also assesses the existing administrative resources and institutional progress made. One important observation is that most of the current problems largely existed since 2014 but have enormously grown in size in 2022.

Rural communities in North Africa and the Middle East are confronted with a myriad of context-specific challenges. While food security is rising on the global and regional agendas, countries are experiencing a demographic decline in rural areas, important shortcomings in rural development and environmental degradation resulting from resource overexploitation and climate change. For concerned communities, the conjunction and intensification of these trends raises serious questions as to their ability to cope now and in the near future. This study is devoted to the analysis of the migration phenomenon in the South Mediterranean’s rural areas. It focuses on identifying and explaining rural trends of migration, including incoming and returning flows. To do so it draws on a multi-disciplinary and synthetic examination of the situation in five countries: Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. The results and recommendations arising from the study are meant to consolidate knowledge on migration in the Euro-Mediterranean region in line with the target 10.7 of the UN sustainable development goals to achieve safe, orderly and regular migration. 
 

This study is carried out within the scope of Enhancement of Entrepreneurship Capacities for Sustainable Socio-Economic Integration (ENHANCER) Project, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

Migration sensitive Local Entrepreneurship Ecosystem (LEE) Analyses have been carried out in 11 provinces of Türkiye; Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Gaziantep, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Konya, Mersin, and Şanlıurfa. The distinct feature of these analyses than the ones already conducted is the inclusive approach for Syrians under Temporary Protection (SuTP). Through ecosystem analyses, the challenges and opportunities for the SuTP entrepreneurs as well as of their relations with ecosystem actors have been identified and policy recommendations are presented for improvement of local entrepreneurship ecosystem focusing on SuTP entrepreneurs.

Unique collaboration bringing together migration expertise, a local university and the private sector, opens up prospects for the local population, business location and companies

On 15 and 16 November 2022, the Ministerial Conference of the Salzburg Forum took place in Bucharest, Romania. ICMPD Director General Michael Spindelegger was invited to speak on behalf of ICMPD. 

On 10 November 2022, ICMPD and the Kingdom of Morocco signed the Agreement between ICMPD and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco concerning the establishment of the ICMPD’s Representation in the Kingdom of Morocco

The infographic represents a snapshot of migration from Russia following the partial mobilisation that was announced in late September 2022.  This visualisation was first published in the Prague Process Quarterly Review No 32 July-September 2022.

This third collection of selected publications produced within the Prague Process Migration Observatory is released amidst Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has resulted in the largest human displacement witnessed in Europe since World War II. More than 14 million people were forced to flee their homes in search for safety. Nearly seven million people have fled to neighbouring countries and further afar, with women and children accounting for the vast majority of the externally displaced Ukrainian citizens. Two chapters address the migration repercussions of the war: First, special attention is given to the vulnerability among those fleeing the war to human trafficking. Secondly, the elaboration of possible post-war scenarios shall allow us to better understand the mid- and long-term migration repercussions of the war. 

Return and reintegration programs provide travel and post-arrival assistance for migrants returning from a country of temporary residence to a country of origin. These programs are not always commonplace in migration management, with some countries preferring to manage departures and any associated departure assistance under general border security functions. In the last eighteen months, the number of return and reintegration programs has doubled in Prague Process non-EU participating states. High-level responses to migration flows are encouraging neighbouring or like-minded countries to find common ground for cooperation and networking for these programs. Some of these programs have the potential to function as part of a broader regional network. Mapping the existence and functionality of these programs provides a starting point for more specific dialogue and action within the Prague Process and beyond.

The war in Ukraine has been raging for six months. The number of people who have fled the war in Ukraine only to Europe has passed 6.3 million while more than 6.6 million were displaced internally within Ukraine. A considerable number of countries, first and foremost Ukraine’s neighbouring countries, but also other countries, including EU members that have been most affected by the influx of people fleeing the war, have made significant efforts to respond to their arrival.

So far, the incidence of human trafficking cases among those fleeing the war in Ukraine has remained insignificant. Still, people who fled the conflict are seeing their personal resources (be of financial or emotional nature) depleted with grimmer perspectives. As their displacement protracts, their vulnerability to exploitation, including trafficking, increases. These vulnerabilities need to be addressed now to avert the descent of a secondary crisis among displaced populations in their host communities later on. The persisting nature of the risks is well illustrated e.g. by ‘huge spikes’ in online searches across multiple languages and countries for explicit content and sexual services from Ukrainian women and girls (OSCE, 2022). 

The existing research by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has demonstrated how people fleeing the conflict become vulnerable to human trafficking.

In this Policy Brief, we examine the nature of these vulnerabilities and provide guidance as to where the countries hosting the people displaced by the war need to invest their attention and efforts to tackle the increased dangers of human trafficking.

The Policy Brief was prepared by the Anti-trafficking Programme of ICMPD in the framework of the “Prague Process: Dialogue, Analyses and Training in Action” initiative, a component of the Migration Partnership Facility, with the assistance of the European Union.

The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and in no way represent the views of the European Union.