Minister for Home Affairs and National Security Carmelo Abela reiterated the importance of a comprehensive approach to migration, tackling key issues such as the provision of development assistance to countries of origin, as well as the need to return migrants who are not entitled to reside in the EU, while providing them with opportunities for re-integration in their respective homelands.
Minister Abela was speaking during a meeting with Michael Spindelegger, Director General of the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), an international organisation set up in 1993 on the initiative of Austria and Switzerland to promote innovative, comprehensive, and sustainable migration policies and to function as a service-exchange mechanism for governments and organisations. The meeting was held at the Ministry in Valletta on Tuesday 11th October 2016.
Discussions focused on issues of mutual interest, including Malta’s upcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the development of the migration dossier within a European Union context, as well as further cooperation between Malta and the ICMPD. The possibility of Maltese membership of ICMPD was also discussed.
The ICMPD currently has 15 Member States, a mission in Brussels, and regional offices and representatives throughout Europe, Northern Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Last May, the organisation opened a ‘Coordination and Cooperation Centre for Migration in the Mediterranean’ in Floriana. The organisation, which holds a United Nations observer status, receives funding from its Member States, the European Commission, the UN and other multilateral institutions, as well as bilateral donors.