News

On 17 December 2015, International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the coordinator of EMN activities in the Slovak Republic organised a working lunch for its partners in order to inform them about EMN activities and outputs produced on behalf of the Slovak Republic in 2015 as well as about planned EMN activities and study topics for 2016. Among materials available at the meeting were the EMN Glossary, national studies and other EMN outputs.

On 27 November 2015, EMN National Contact Point for Ireland in cooperation with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation organised in Dublin the EMN National Conference entitled Making labour migration work: Identifying labour shortages and attracting migrant workers as part of the solution. The conference focused on comparison of current approaches and formulation of possible new approaches in relation to identifying EU labour market shortages.

At the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the Schengen Treaty as well as Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council, the EMN National Contact Point for Luxembourg organised on 7 October 2015 the EMN Annual Conference titled 30 years of Schengen Agreement – The Future of Schengen: Challenges and Opportunities. The conference aimed to discuss the developments and the perspectives of Schengen regarding border management and irregular migration as well as to deliver the ideas to feed future policy debates at international, EU and national level. Among speakers of the conference were representatives of EU Member States’ ministries, European Commission, FRONTEX, European Parliament, European universities and international organisations. It was attended by 180 participants coming from different background.

On 1 December 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the coordinator of EMN in Slovakia in cooperation with the Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic organised the EMN National Conference on Integration Programmes for Beneficiaries of International Protection and subsequently the EMN Expert Round Table. The aim of the event was to contribute to the preparation of the state Integration Programme of the Slovak Republic for Beneficiaries of International Protection which is being coordinated by the Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior. Among speakers of the conference were representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), European Council for Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), state administration of the Visegrad Group countries and Austria as well as local experts in this field. The conference was attended by 58 representatives of public administration, the third sector, international organisations, academia and media.

Representatives of EMN and IOM Migration Information Centre prepared for students of the University of Economics’ Faculty of International Relations introductory lecture on migration, international protection and migrant integration in the world and Slovakia. They focused on and discussed the basic terms and definitions, statistics, trends and myths related to migration. They also introduced IOM activities in Slovakia and EMN outputs which students can use in their further study and discussions.