About ICMPD
The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is an
international organisation with 18 Member States and more than 300 staff
members. Active in more than 90 countries worldwide, it takes a
regional approach in its work to create efficient cooperation and
partnerships along migration routes. Priority regions include Africa,
Central and South Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Its three-pillar
approach to migration management – structurally linking research,
migration dialogues and capacity building – contributes to better
migration policy development worldwide. The Vienna-based organisation
has a mission in Brussels, a regional office in Malta and project
offices in several countries. ICMPD receives funding from its Member
States, the European Commission, the UN and other multilateral
institutions, as well as bilateral donors. Founded in 1993, ICMPD holds
UN observer status and cooperates with more than 700 partners, including
EU institutions and UN agencies.
About the Silk Routes Project
The project “Improving Migration Management in the Silk Routes Countries” (hereinafter referred to as “the Project”) is funded by the European Union and implemented since August 2017 by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). It aims to maximize the development potential of migration and mobility within the Silk Routes region and towards major migrant receiving countries as well as to establish comprehensive regional responses to migration and mobility with full respect to human rights and protection of migrants.
The specific objectives of the Project are essentially to strengthen the regional policy dialogue based on shared and clear understanding of migration and mobility between the Silk Routes countries and European counterparts; to improve migration governance and mobility; and to operationalise the policy dialogue on migration, mainly undertaken in the framework of the so-called Budapest Process.
It has three components:
• Dialogue – which supports the Budapest Process
• Facility – enhance capacities and peer to peer collaboration through flexible tools
• Flagships – concrete cooperation in 3 selected fields: Migrant Resource Centres or MRCs, Regional Law Enforcement Cooperation or RELEC, Migrants Rights Protection or MIGRA.P
About MRCs and MIGRA.P
MRCs are physical structures established within or under the supervision of a government ministry dealing with migration in the Silk Routes countries. Staffed with a Coordinator and Counsellors, the MRCs conduct awareness raising and information campaigns to sensitise potential migrants and the public to help ensure they make informed decisions about migration, promote safe, regular and orderly migration, and raise public understanding on the dangers and consequences of irregular migration, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons. In countries where pre-departure processes are more institutionalised such as Bangladesh and Pakistan, the MRCs conduct pre-departure session or training which is a requirement before a migrant worker is allowed to leave his/her origin country for work overseas.
The MRCs also develop various kinds of audio-visual products, printed materials and other forms of knowledge products for this purpose such as country-specific information for major destination countries of migrant workers, visa regimes, and videos on various migration-related topics.
MIGRA.P has specific activities depending on the migration context of the Silk Routes countries such as developing the pre-departure system for labour migration for Afghanistan and expanding the labour migration laws and rules of Iraq. MIGRA.P also develops various knowledge materials to better prepare migrants for the journey and employment abroad in order to protect them and prepare them in times of crisis, distress, calamities and other incidents through pre-departure and post-arrival orientation offered by government authorities and other stakeholders.
For these purposes, MIGRA.P developed 10 country specific training modules catering to the various stages of migration, suited to the country situation and needs. These training modules will be available as printed products as well as on an online platform to provide migrants (potential or about to depart, and to some extent, returning) and other interested individuals the flexibility to avail and use these modules at their own pace, time and location.
