Skopje – MARRI RC held an Information and Discussion working meeting with the aim to provide an overview of the regional interventions where MARRI participates as a partner of the IPA II project ‘Regional Support to Protection-Sensitive Migration Management in the Western Balkans’. The meeting was organized and led by the two experts seconded by IOM to MARRI RC through the project.

Under the auspices of the aforementioned EU project, IOM is supporting MARRI in establishing a regionally compatible mechanism for exchange of migration and asylum data in line with EU standards (EC Regulation 862/2007 on Community statistics on migration and international protection as well as EUROSTAT methodologies).

The purpose of this activity is to create a regional mechanism where MARRI Participants would be able to share migration data which are comparable and in line with EU standards and methodologies. This would foster standardisation of migration statistics in the region and development of trends analyses, regional migration profiles, and evidence-based policies.

Beside this and within the same project another intervention supported by IOM is the set-up of the MARRI Pool of extra-regional language interpreters and tailored remote interpretation services, with a view to complement the existing national-level interpretation solutions. This activity will support the asylum authorities of the MARRI Participants to access reliable interpretation services, which are key in ensuring effective and rights-cantered asylum procedures.

MARRI Participant Representatives and team members engaged in a fruitful discussion clarifying outstanding issues and discussing ways forward to ensure the effective implementation of the project activities.

4 September 2018 – MARRI Meeting on Regional IPA II Project on Protection-Sensitive Migration Management