News

In the framework of the first Presidency of Slovakia in the Council of the EU International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the EMN Coordinator for the Slovak Republic organised an international conference on Rethinking Returns from the EU: Sustainable Returns and Cooperation with Countries of Origin. The conference held on 6 - 7 July 2016 in Bratislava sought to discuss current state of play, good practice and lessons learned in return and reintegration of migrants from outside the EEA for further use by the EU and its Member States.

On 28 January 2016, EMN National Contact Point (NCP) for the UK with support of the Home Office, Department for Communities and Local Government and Department for International Development organised a conference titled “Learning from the past to design a sustainable resettlement programme for Syrian refugees in the UK” in London. Among speakers of the conference were representatives from the UK’s Home Office - UK’s Syrian Resettlement Programme, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Office in the United Kingdom, Refugee Council, the European Commission, various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing support with integration of refugees in the UK and representatives from among the employers - private companies.

On the 12 and 13 January 2016 at the occasion of the Netherlands’ Presidency of the Council of the European Union the EMN Annual Conference titled ‘Promoting the Multidisciplinary Approach in Addressing Migrant Smuggling’ was organised in Amsterdam by the Dutch EMN National Contact Point in cooperation with the European Commission and the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice.  

On 4 December 2015, the Belgian EMN National Contact Point organised the EMN National Conference in Brussels on Return of Irregular and Vulnerable Migrants. In the context of the current migratory situation, the conference served as a platform for experts to discuss good practices and challenges related to return with a specific focus on vulnerable migrants.

On 1 March 2016 in Bratislava, the EMN organised a working breakfast on migration terms and actors working the field of migration and international protection in Slovakia. The meeting was specifically aimed at press and communication units of the public administration and other subjects. It was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic (MoI SR) including the Police Force Presidium (PFP), Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic (MoLSAF SR), Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic (MoFEA SR) and the European Parliament Information Office in Slovakia.