Islamabad-Lahore, 19-23 May 2014: ICMPD, as the Budapest Process Secretariat, paid a visit at senior official’s level to Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan this week (19 – 23 May 2014). The aim of the visit was for Director Martijn Pluim to meet with relevant stakeholders in the area of migration and identify together further cooperation opportunities.
The ICMPD delegation furthermore discussed the implementation of the “Support to the Silk Routes Partnership” project and provided support to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in developing a training curriculum on irregular migration, human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
ICMPD was also invited to the International Donors Conference on Assistance to Police Departments of Pakistan where Sedef Dearing, Senior Regional Advisor – Silk Routes, gave a presentation on ICMPDs activities in Pakistan under the Silk Routes Partnership umbrella.
This visit marks the next step towards delivering concrete actions laid out in the Istanbul Ministerial Declaration on a Silk Routes Partnership for Migration. The elaboration of a training curriculum will be further built upon by future planned activities under the Silk Routes Partnership project, which is funded by the European Union, Bulgaria, Hungary (leading partner), Netherlands and Norway as pledged partners, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and ICMPD as implementing partner. In June, Pakistani senior officials together with their Afghan and Iraqi counterparts will attend the first regional training on migration policy development and data management in Erbil, Iraq. In September, workshops on both topics will be held in Islamabad, involving focal points from all relevant national authorities.
