enpi-info.eu, 11 October 2012
First Euromed Migration III meeting focuses on migration profiles

http://www.enpi-info.eu/mainmed.php?id=30581&id_type=1&lang_id=450

The EU-funded Euromed Migration III project has held its first Migration
Profile meeting around the theme of ‚Mainstreaming Migration Knowledge
into Policy Making‘. The meeting was attended by 29 southern partner
country representatives from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the
Palestinian Authority, Morocco and Tunisia.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of DG Development and
Cooperation and DG Home Affairs of the European Commission, as well as the
EU border agency FRONTEX. This event was supported by guest speakers,
including the International Organisation for Migration, the International
Centre for Migration Policy Development, the Belgian Université Catholique
de Louvain, the MEDSTAT III project, in addition to other speakers from
Moldova and Switzerland.

Participants heard an outline of the activities and wider ambitions of the
project, which focus on four components: horizontal crosscutting
(including migration profiles), combating irregular migration, legal
migration, and migration and development. Migration profiles are aimed at
contributing to policy development, reinforcing policy coherence, bringing
together the different strands of migration policy.

The meeting produced a number of outcomes, including wide support for the
development of migration profiles as a tool and process, and recognition
of the importance of national coordination mechanisms and regional
standards. The availability of timely and updated information and data
was also seen as crucial to supporting policymakers and policy
implementation.

The key conclusion of the meeting was an agreement to work with a proposed
draft road map. This is aimed to support Southern Mediterranean countries
and ensure that ongoing input from the project assists partners in their
policymaking and in the creation of migration profiles. The tool will
focus on information sharing and will allow partners to follow their own
progress with regard to the project and to the wider migration policy
context. This migration profile process will be supported by a small
technical assistance facility managed by the project.

The Euromed Migration III project’s next event will be the opening
training session in irregular migration, which will take place in Lisbon
on 16-19 October 2012. This will be followed with the first legal
migration training scheduled for 6-9 November 2012 in Turin. Other events
and activities, including high level peer to peer meetings, are foreseen
for the next two years of the project.

With a €5 million euro budget from the European Commission, the Euromed
Migration III project aims to foster cooperation on migratory issues
between Southern Mediterranean country partners and EU member states as
well as between Southern Mediterranean countries themselves and to help
partner countries find solutions to the various forms of migration.
Another long term objective is to create a network of professionals for
better cooperation and exchange of good practices and experience. The
project will support the linkage between migration and development, and
help partner countries fight people trafficking and strengthen border
management capacities.