Budapest, 3-4 March 2020: The implementation of the Call for Action endorsed in December 2019 kicked off in 2020 with the first dialogue activity addressing Priority Goal 1 of the Call for Action. The Call for Action, which was adopted at the 6th Ministerial Conference of the Budapest Process provides the direction of activities for the next 5 years in six priority areas related to migration including Priority Goal 1 related to countering irregular migration. Experts on return and reintegration gathered for two days  in Budapest, hosted by the Co-Chair of the dialogue, Hungary. The meeting included a panel discussion amongst representatives from Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Pakistan, ERRIN, FRONTEX and the Bali Process. Break-out group discussions followed in three sessions focusing on structural constraints to return and reintegration.

Istanbul, 14-17 December – As part of the ongoing activity to expand the labour migration rules and regulations of Iraq, ICMPD and Iraq’s Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) conducted a training for 19 MOLSA officials and three representatives from the Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) based in Baghdad. The participating MOLSA officials came from different departments in charge of skills and vocational training, international relations, labour inspection, planning, information management and licensing.

Istanbul, 8-10 February 2020 – Seventeen officials from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan met for three days with experts from ICMPD in Istanbul, Turkey, to discuss and learn about labour migration management. A representative from the Migrant Resource Centre MRC in Kabul also participated in the training.