In line with the Priorities of the Montenegro Presidency-in-Office, MARRI Regional Centre organized the first semiannual meeting of the Heads of Asylum Departments Network, which gathered asylum experts from the Ministries of Interior/Security of MARRI Participants as well as representatives from the European Asylum Support Office (EASO) in Malta.  Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, this session of the Asylum Network was organized online via Zoom. On behalf of the Presidency-in-Office, the opening remarks were delivered by MARRI Participant Representative

Skopje – Exchange of views about the regional priorities when it comes to migration and MARRI’s role in the overall efforts to improve the mechanisms for orderly migration, were the main topics for discussion during the first official visit of the Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Skopje, H.E. Mr. Dragan Jacimovic to the MARRI Regional Centre. The Embassy’s Counsellor Mr. Damir Masic and Bosnia and Herzegovina Representative to MARRI RC, Dr. Ankica Tomic also attended the meeting. The occasion provided an

As part of IOM’s institutional support to MARRI within IPA II Project “Support to Protection-sensitive Migration Management in the Western Balkans and Turkey”, IOM is announcing an open call for the position Migration Data and Policy Analyst. The successful candidate will be responsible for the execution of tasks related to collection, analysis, and publication of migration-related data in the Western Balkans. The Migration Data and Policy Analyst will work under the direct supervision of the MARRI RC Director, overall supervision of

The Montenegro Presidency-in-Office of MARRI wishes to recruit an experienced person to serve as Director of MARRI Regional Centre in Skopje, with staring date of August 1, 2021.  The post is offered to the MARRI Participants (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo*) on a secondment basis. The vacancy is opened from 31 January until 1 April 2021 and the applications should be submitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro, Directorate General for Multilateral Affairs, and

On the occasion of launching the findings of the regional Analysis of COVID-19 influence on migration in the MARRI Participants in the areas of irregular migration, trafficking in human beings and asylum, MARRI RC organised a virtual Regional Conference “Tuning migration procedures to Covid-19: Good practices and way forward” where policy makers, practitioners, service providers and other key migration stakeholders discussed the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the migration governance. Apart from representatives of the MARRI Participants, the conference was highly attended by

The mid-term MARRI Committee Meeting under the Montenegro Chairmanship was virtually attended by the MARRI Committee members, Coordinators, Participants’ Representatives at the Regional Centre and the MARRI RC staff. The opening remarks of the Ambassador Veljko Milonjic on behalf of the Precedency-in-Office, were followed by the address of MARRI RC Director Sashko Kocev in which he briefed about Centre’s operations and impact in the period of June-December 2020, the implemented & upcoming project activities as well as events linked to the cooperation

MARRI Participants’ Coordinators for trafficking in human beings met for the third time as members of PaCT Steering Group to discuss the project progress, outcomes and the way forward regarding the project objectives. The meeting was attended by representatives of the project’s implementing partners International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), NGO Tjeter Vizion from Albania, NGO World Vision from Bosnia and Herzegovina and the NGO Executive Group form Serbia; representatives of GIZ Project team and the MARRI RC team.

The first activity under the EASO – MARRI Pilot Training Workplan 2020 – 2021 was attended by representatives from EASO and MARRI RC in Skopje. At the workshop,  the experiences of EASO on implementation of a training process were shared, from planning to realization, with emphasizes on the challenges EASO faces under the circumstances of 2020. Also, the workshop was used to review the upcoming activities which had been postponed due to Covid19 pandemic, and to set new timeframe for

MARRI delivered a tailored online training on the use of the Regional Remote Interpretation Service (RRIS) for staff of the Asylum Department at the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Serbia. This was the last RRIS training for MARRI Participant asylum department employees which had to be delivered online due to COVID-19 containment measures. RRIS has been launched since September 2019, and is now available for use in all MARRI Participants. Through interactive practical exercises, the attending asylum officials

The final meeting of the MARRI Legal Framework Reform Working Group was organised by Director Sashko Kocev online, under Montenegro Presidency-in-Office. The meeting was dedicated to the final revision of new draft MARRI Basic Documents, as proposed by Integrated German Expert Christoph von Harsdorf. The Reform includes a partly concluded management reform and will lead to higher functionality of MARRI, optimized processes and increased efficiency as well as to a higher output of its Regional Centre. The Legal Framework Reform