Annual Forum of the Migration, Asylum and Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI) has been held in Podgorica on 21st June 2016. On that date Montenegro completed one year Presidency in Office over this regional mechanism. Ambassador Milorad Scepanovic, Deputy Foreign Minister for multilateral and regional initiatives chaired the Forum that gathered representatives of the Republic of Albania, Republic of Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republic of Serbia and Kosovo*, as well as the representatives of international organizations:  IOM, OBSE, DCAF, ICMPD and

MARRI Friends Meeting was traditionally organized on 18 May 2016 in Skopje, Macedonia, gathering the international community and Macedonian institutions. The aim of the event was to present the one year activities of MARRI, the ongoing projects and achieved results as well as reflection on MARRI’s future activities. Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia welcomed the audience reiterating the full support towards MARRI mandate and role in the region. The representative of the Montenegrin Presidency-in-Office presented the

MARRI’s First Annual Meeting BORDAIRPOL II and ad hoc Meeting on New Developments on the SEE Migratory Route and Joint Response to Newly Occurring Security Challenges, co-organised by the Police Cooperation Convention for Southeast Europe (PCC SEE) Secretariat under the auspices of the Moldovan Chairmanship and the DCAF Border Security Programme was held from 20-22 April 2016 in Portorož, Slovenia Annual Meeting is the first strategic meeting organized under Project BORDAIRPOL II financed by Swiss State Secretariat for Migration. Beneficiaries

The training was held on 8-9 April 2016 with aim to improve the ability of National Governments to address challenges in implementing national policies and legislation by working toward a comprehensive picture of threats posed by the areas of asylum and mixed migration flows, to be presented with a future regional strategic analytical product. National delegations from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Kosovo*, Romania and Serbia presented relevant data and statistics and exchanged information about the latest

As part of the project, we have worked hard on enhancing the capacities of the MARRI Participants’ national authorities to effectively respond to the expansion of irregular migrants and speed up the identification process. The project supported the national institutions in building a sustainable and effective mechanism for joint multi-stakeholder action in the process of establishing identity of irregular migrants. In the course of the past 11 months through eight regional workshops the following major outputs have been achieved: Drafting

The workshop was follow up on the previous project activity in the framework of “Improvement of the Procedures for Establishing the Identity of Irregular Migrants in the MARRI Region” Project and it was held on 24 and 25 March 2016 in Skopje, Macedonia.

MARRI Regional Centre hosted International Conference “Acting together in Migration Management – Enhancing Coordination among Local and Central Level” on 17th March 2016 in Skopje. The event was organized under Montenegrin Presidency-in–Office. Over 80 participants – representatives of central and local authorities from 14 European countries, international organizations and NGO’s gathered in order to exchange experiences and best practices in migration crisis management. Vice President of the European Parliament for the Western Balkans Ms. Ulrike Lunacek addressed the participants via

The workshop was held on 25 – 26 February 2016 in Skopje, Macedonia and focused on improvement of the procedures for establishing the identity of the irregular migrants in MARRI Region.

The workshop was held on 28-29 January 2016 in Skopje, where representatives from the Ministries of Interior of all MARRI Participants got together in order to finalize the work on the Guidelines for establishing identity of irregular migrants. The main purpose of this document is to improve procedures and practices, related to establishment of irregular migrants´ identity.  This effort is also aimed at  harmonizing standards and procedures to be applied by the authorities dealing with irregular migrants in all MARRI Participants. The three-member

The international conference “Migration and Refugee Flows in Transit Countries: Security Implications” has been organized on 15-16 December 2015 in Skopje, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Macedonia and Central European Initiative Secretariat. On that occasion it has been organized the official signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding between CEI Executive Secretariat and MARRI Regional Center. The conference has been organized under the auspices of the Macedonian Presidency with CEI with two panel discussions: The impact of migration and