During the 18. and 19. of April 2013. Commissariat for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia, with the support of the Technical Assistance and Information Exchange (TAIEX) of the Directorate General for Enlargement of the European Commission, organized a workshop on "Migration profile: from data collection to creating policy" in Belgrade.

During the introduction the participants were addressed by Mr. Luca Bianconi, head of the Political Section of the EU Delegation to Serbia, and Ms. Svetlana Velimirović, Deputy Commissioner for Refugees and Migration of the Republic of Serbia.

 

The workshop was organized with the aim of exchanging experiences in the region in terms of creating migration policies based on accurate data - through the adoption of migration profiles, as well as sharing information on migration monitoring systems and data collection.

The workshop was attended by more than 100 participants from 10 countries: the representatives of the state administration of the Republic of Serbia involved in migration management system, the authorized institutions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Pristina, experts from Austria, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Romania and Moldova, as well as representatives of many embassies of EU Member States and the countries of the region.

The workshop was also attended by representatives of the international community in Serbia - European Delegation, UNHCR, IOM, ICMPD, DRC, representatives of regional initiatives MARRI and RACVIAC, the scientific community and representatives of civil society.

Topics that were discussed at the workshop were:

• Migration Profile as a basis for policy development;
• The role of statistics in migration monitoring;
• The importance of the participation of all relevant stakeholders in the monitoring process of migration and the importance of sharing information;
• The individual experiences of countries in the region in the development of the Migration Profile and examples of good practice;
• The role of civil society and academia in the development of migration policies.

The experts of the Member States of the European Union, IOM and ICMPD presented the Migration Profile as a tool for strategic policy development, the latest trends in the field of migration, migration policy based on evidence and discussed the mechanisms to collect and share data. The representatives of the countries of the region presented their national frameworks for migration management. Special attention was given to ways of how collecting data can improve policy making. Given the wide range of stakeholders in the formulation of policies on migration, civil society and academia presented their role in shaping a comprehensive migration policy.

 

During the two-day workshop, experts from EU member states, state representatives, and representatives of regional, international and non-governmental organizations had the opportunity to engage in intensive dialogue on best practices, exchange of experience in the area of data collection on migration and to objectively review the process of establishing a system for tracking migration.

In the opinion of the participants this workshop could be a very successful platform for regional cooperation in the field of migration management.