Danish Refugee Council Serbia organized two workshops "Building capacities of Migration Councils for migration management through development and realisation of Local Action Plans" in Belgrade, on 14 and 15 March 2016. The workshops were organized within the Project "Enhancement of migrations response capacities in Serbia - EMRCS" financed by the Embassy of Denmark in Serbia with the aim to raise capacities of the Government of Serbia and Local Self-governments in the realisation of Local Action Plans on migration management and in the improvement of refugees’ access to information, protection mechanisms and needed reception assistance.
 
The workshops were attended by representatives of local-self governments positioned on the migrants’ route and participating in the EMRCS project.

Mrs. Jelena Andjelic, EMRCS representative, welcomed participants by giving an overview of so far conducted activities as well future plan in Project’s implementation. Representatives from involved local self-governments were informed about the results from the questionnaire on importance and level of using the LAPs on local level.

The lectures were given by Commissariat for Refugees and Migration’s representatives, Ms. Olivera Nikolic, Mrs. Ljiljana Rakic and Ms. Svjetlana Oklobdzija.

The focus of the first part of workshop, led by Ms. Olivera Nikolic, was given to migration management in the Republic of Serbia, legal framework as well as rights and obligations of migrants and asylum seekers. Participants were involved in practical exercise and involved in the simulation of different migration related situations.

Second part of the workshop was dedicated to importance of the Local Action Plans through presentation and discussion on best practices, formulation of overall and specific objectives, identification of stakeholders, document structure development and formulation of activities in relation to the identified needs. Representatives of local communities had an opportunity to share their experience gained from realisation of existing LAPs.

Mrs. Rakic and Ms. Oklobdzija developed an interesting exercise dedicated to the formulation of overall and specific objectives to be incorporated in future LAPs, the firs LAPs dedicated to the current category of migrants and asylum seekers.