What were the results of the event?
Keeping in mind the objective to review ongoing and past Actions, extract good practices and examine MIEUX’s longer-term impact, participants were asked to report back on what achievements they felt had reached through our interventions. 10 years into its implementation, MIEUX’s knowledge-exchange model has been able to produce some noteworthy results, for example:
1) In Thailand, following a study visit to Belgium as part of a MIEUX Action, new networks were created between Thai and EU authorities. These networks prompted the set-up of focal points for repatriation and voluntary return of Thai Victims of Trafficking (VoTs) from EU back to Thailand.
Additionally, the Thai authorities reported that the exposure to the protocol for VoTs operating in EU has prompted a revision of the Protocol for victim protection in Thailand so that authorities are able to assist VoTs also outside Victim Protection Shelters. As reported, the change in legislation is pending but due to pass in the coming months.
2) In Lao PDR, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development was able to bring together for the first time the ‘National Migration Data Working Group (NMDWG)’, an inter-ministerial working group to collaborate on a MIEUX Action aimed at setting up a national labour migration database.
3) In the Philippines, officials from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration were introduced to the concept of social marketing thanks to a MIEUX Action conducted between 2011 and 2013. Since then, officials have extracted the learnings into subsequent exercises of communications campaigns directed at Filipino migrant workers.
4) In Timor–Leste and Cambodia, police officers involved in MIEUX training gained knowledge of EU methodologies prompting a new awareness of improvements needed in the area of border management and Trafficking in Human Beings and in general about capacity-building of their staff.
5) In Kyrgyzstan, as reported by the Kyrgyz authorities, MIEUX provided a unique opportunity to develop the long-term vision for the National Migration Policy which is now in the final stages of its ratification.
This non-exhaustive list of accomplishments bears witness to the adaptability and flexibility that MIEUX is renowned for and sheds light on several processes that MIEUX has been able to facilitate at the national, regional and bilateral level, offering a prime example of collaboration, cooperation and partnership in matters of migration management between the EU and partner countries.