Actions

The MIEUX+ team and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) piloted a training course on border management during health emergencies in Lusaka, Zambia in March 2023. Mixing theory and practice,  participants are now informed and trained to react to the next health crisis in an efficient manner.

On 14 February 2023, MIEUX+ co-organised a presentation together with the Human Rights Commissioner of the Republic of Kazakhstan and Centre for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation and Adaptation for Women and Children ‘Rodnik’, to conclude the Kazakhstan II project.

2022 was a watershed moment for migration governance, as the war in Ukraine and its repercussions have triggered levels of displacement unseen since World War II, nearing the total numbers of refugees to the 2015-2016 figures. Also other destination regions witnessed similar developments throughout the year.

Together with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, MIEUX+ is organising different activities to develop overall knowledge on migration of Cameroonian civil servants’ and to ensure an improved consular protection and assistance for the Congolese community abroad.

This article looks back on the past 12 months of MIEUX+ Actions. The new reality brought on by the partial recovery from COVID-19 has shifted certain priorities and needs on the ground for MIEUX+ partners.

MIEUX+ has recently completed its fourth Action in Mexico supporting the National Migration Institute (INM) with the effective management and coordination of assistance to migrants during health-related crisis.

For the second time since the beginning of the current phase, MIEUX+ is launching its annual report in video format. The annual report highlights the main projects and milestones accomplished between April 2021 and May 2022.

Our ongoing Action in Azerbaijan, which has started in October 2021, aims to tackle the challenging topic of Trafficking in Human Beings by bringing together government authorities and civil society organisations to exchange practices and benefit from EU expertise on the matter.

The scope of the Actionis two-fold: first, it will strengthen the capacity of national authorities to counter Trafficking in Human Beings through digital tools and social media channels. Second, it will contribute to the engagement and coordination of relevant non-governmental organisations and public institutions.

At the end of October, MIEUX+ organised a simulation exercise for the staff of the General Consulate of Georgia in Bari, Italy, to improve their knowledge of crisis management response and disaster preparedness.

Kazakhstan is a country of origin, destination and transit for many migrants in Central Asia. It is the second time that we work with Kazakh partners (read more about Kazakhstan I), and for this project, we are bringing government officials and civil society organisations to collaborate together towards a common goal: inform migrant families with children about their rights.

Our new project in Uganda brings together local government and civil society organisations to mainstream migration into local urban planning, in light of the country’s rapid development and urbanisation. We officially launched the Action on-site with our partners, representatives of the EU and experts from Finland and Sweden.

Building on 10 years of cooperation with Costa Rica, the 5^th project with the General Directorate for Migration and Immigration (DGME) is aimed at developing the country’s new National Integration Plan (NIP) for 2023 – 2027. The project has sought to evaluate the current plan 2018-2022, as well as foster spaces of dialogue to establish a roadmap for the next one. In the framework of the onsite mission in San Jose, Costa Rica, the MIEUX+ team and experts brought together a variety of actors to plan integration in the next 5 years across 6 strategic areas, through a holistic and participative approach and including a strong gender-sensitive component.

In MIEUX+, we operate on a demand-driven basis and receive requests for capacity development projects from partners worldwide. This is one of our key features, a crucial one that helps us to draw a picture of the current needs on the ground and to, ultimately, better assist our partners. Since the beginning of MIEUX+, latest phase of the initiative, we have noticed an increasing interest from partners to help them develop communications products and activities to address their needs. How can effective and coordinated communications contribute to migration management?

As part of the capacity development strategy launched in 2020 with the latest phase of MIEUX+, the Training of Trainers (ToT) course is the first standardised material developed by the team and a set of experts in this area. The ongoing project with the Brazilian Public Defenders’ Office represented a great opportunity to pilot the ToT course and prepare for the broad roll-out of this product for other partners around the world.

For our project in Kazakhstan, more than 10 EU MS shared their practices on the topic of migrant families with children. The development of communications tools is ongoing and will help our partners to provide better protection to the migrant families with children.

The first regional project was launched in June 2022 in the Gran Chaco region, the second biggest biodiversity and forest area after the Amazon rainforest. The Action brings together 10 partners from various sectors aiming at finding solutions that would contribute to an effective and coordinated management of environmental migration.

Since the establishment of MIEUX+ in 2009, we worked with 11 countries in the EU Neighbourhood, representing 16% of our general portfolio. Currently there are 3 ongoing Actions, 3 in the pipeline and one project on hold. Find out more about our highlights of the region!

The 5th MIEUX project with Costa Rica kicked off on Monday 25 April with around 50 participants from the General Directorate for Migration and Immigration (DGME), the EU Delegation in Costa Rica, MIEUX+ Experts from Germany and Spain and representatives from various national ministries, international organisations, NGOs and academia. Drawing from previous work in the country developed jointly between MIEUX and the DGME, this Action will focus on the development of the Costa Rica National Integration Plan (NIP) 2023 – 2027, building from lessons learnt and a new migratory reality.

From 26 March to 02 April 2022, MIEUX+ conducted a capacities and training needs assessment mission in Dushanbe as part of our ongoing Action in Tajikistan on labour migration.

Together with the Brazilian Public Defenders’ Office, MIEUX+ launched its first fully fledged online course on international protection and asylum: legal assistance to asylum-seekers and refugees in Brazil.

This is a summary of the ways MIEUX+ contributes to Objective 23 of the Global Compact for Migration to mark the International Migration Review Forum Round Table 4 that took place on Wednesday 14/02.

2021 is ending and despite the volatility, there are many achievements worth sharing from the past 12 months. It includes achievements for our individual Actions as well as the development of various innovations to strengthen our work with our stakeholders.

MIEUX+ has launched its second Action in Kazakhstan to support the Human Rights Commissioner and civil society partners in their endeavour to promote the rights of migrant children and their families in the region of Almaty.

Together with experts from Bulgaria, Denmark and Estonia, the MIEUX+ team undertook the onsite component of the capacity and training needs assessment in the framework of the 2^nd MIEUX Action in Mauritius. This project will focus on strengthening the capacities of government officials working on combatting trafficking in human beings (THB), through the development of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) aimed at enhancing the identification, referral, investigation and prosecution of THB cases.

The third MIEUX Action in Moldova was launched on 9 November 2021 and seeks to ensure quality management of integrated border management principles in the country. High-level representatives from Moldovan authorities, ICMPD and the EU Delegation as well as European experts discussed the relevance, importance and next steps of this project.

MIEUX+ concluded its third Action in Dominican Republic, which focused on knowledge exchange between government peers tasked with migration and border management issues.

MIEUX+, the Brazilian Public Defenders’s Office (DPU) and the MERCOSUR Public Defenders’ Network (BLODEPM) organised the regional webinar “Asylum Application Process and Legal Assistance Offered by Public Defenders – Challenges, Effects of the Pandemic and Good Practices” on 17 June 2021 in honour of the upcoming World Refugee Day.

Global attention to climate change and environmental challenges is growing and our partners in Western and Central Africa have raised their concern about its impact on migration. The ongoing MIEUX+ Action Benin II aims to improve assistance to migrants displaced by climate change and environmental degradation.

In December 2020, MIEUX+ launched a new Action in Brazil in the area of international protection and asylum policy with the Federal Public Defenders’ Office. It is not the first time that the institutions cooperates with MIEUX. In 2019, the Brazil II Action focused on children in migration whilst the newly launched Action builds on the aims to contribute to better protection and juridical support to a broader spectrum of migrants and asylum seekers in Brazil.

With the launch of its new phase, MIEUX+ is looking for migration experts to support its capacity building activities all over the world, starting with a new series of Actions focusing on crisis management and migration and health.

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Madagascar presented the new Politique nationale d’engagement de la diaspora malagasy (National Malagasy diaspora engagement policy), prepared with support from MIEUX, in Antanarivo, Madagascar. The formulation of the policy, linked to the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, has been the objective of a two-year Action that started in November 2017 and aims to promote, foster and facilitate the participation of Malagasys abroad into the country´s future development.

The European Union is supporting the Ecuadorian Chairmanship of the 2019 Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) through the MIgration EU eXpertise (MIEUX) Initiative, implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). The two-day regional workshop “Providing regular pathways from crisis to safety”, co-organised by ICMPD and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 19 and 20 September in Quito, Ecuador is the third in a series of four regional workshops preceding the Quito Summit in November and will gather representatives from academia, national and local-level governments, international organisations and civil society to exchange experiences on management of mixed flows. 

Northern Brazil is facing a mounting challenge with the increasing arrival of a large number of migrant children, unaccompanied or not, to the Northern Brazilian States of Amazonas and Roraima. Responding to a request from the Public Defender's Office, MIEUX launched a new Action to assess the ongoing situation and to transmit the European experiences in areas of interview protocols for international protection applicants, especially children.

The joint EU- ICMPD Migration EU eXpertise Initiative (MIEUX) gathered 20 participants, composed of a mix of partner authorities, experts and MIEUX staff, for a two-day workshop in Cotonou, Benin about Migration and Environment. The event is the last of a series of activities executed after the request from the Ministry of Environment of Benin, the Office of Secretary of State of Guinea-Bissau and Ministry of Planning, Development and Land Use of Togo back in 2015.

Today MIEUX publishes two new Regional Factsheets on Eastern, Central and Southern Africa and on Latin America and the Caribbean. In total, 37 Actions across these two regions have supported governments on important areas of migration such as data collection, migration and development, irregular migration, THB and smuggling of migrants (SOM). 

Romain Gustot, Project Officer and Regional Coordinator for the EU Neighbourhood, reflects on his recent mission to Minsk and the MIEUX Action supporting the government of Belarus on labour migration.

Today, MIEUX launches a new thematic factsheet on the topic of migration and gender. The Factsheet explores the relationship between protection and empowerment of migrant women and girls in the context of policy development and offers some suggestions for migration practitioners working on this topic.