Sarajevo – Following the same agenda of the other workshops under “Strengthening regional migration governance” project, the event in Sarajevo provided an excellent opportunity for promoting the regional cooperation on migration among the professionals of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The topics concerning asylum, border management, trafficking in human beings, readmission and labour migration were discussed among the representatives of governmental institutions, international and civil society organisations, providing valuable input on how MARRI could support their efforts on strategic level.
The event was opened by Ms. Murveta Dzaferovic, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Security of Bosnia and Herzegovina who informed on Bosnia and Herzegovina accomplishments but also current challenges in dealing with the migration management. She stressed that the regional approach is essential for overcoming these issues and praised MARRI’s efforts for enhancing the regional cooperation. In his address, MARRI RC Director Sashko Kocev briefed on MARRI’s objectives and priorities as prescribed in MARRI Strategy 2018 – 2020 while Mr. Michael Samec, Team Leader at GIZ Office Skopje welcomed the participants on behalf of German International Cooperation (GIZ).
After a short overview on MARRI’s activities delivered by MARRI RC Programme Manager Mr. Aleksandar Todosiev, the workshop proceeded to the working sessions, organized as work in groups arranged by topic and by sector. The discussions resulted in abundance of ideas for improvement of the current situation in each area of interest and brought many new proposals for increasing the cooperation and coordination among the different stakeholders. The participants also contributed to the development of the two possible MARRI products, the publication of “White paper on migration” and establishment of a regional Pool of experts on migration, both presented by MARRI RC Coordination Officer Ms. Katerina Kulishevska.