MARRI Regional Forum of Ministers of Interior/Security on its last session on 29 July 2023 in Skopje, elected Snezana Trajanovska as new MARRI RC Director with mandate of three years, starting from 1 August 2023.  Before becoming MARRI RC Director, Trajanovska held position as Head of Foreigners and Readmission Unit, Department for Border Affairs and Migration within the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia. In this leadership role, Trajanovska will plan the strategic direction of MARRI and

Skopje – The MARRI Regional Forum of Ministers of Interior/ Security concluded the MARRI Presidency-in-Office by North Macedonia and marked the beginning of the yearlong chairmanship over the Initiative by the Republic of Serbia. High-level officials from MARRI Participants and representatives from international community attended the ministerial session, and once again, highlighted the importance of the regional cooperation for strengthening and development of the region. In the welcoming remarks, the Minister of Interior of North Macedonia Oliver Spasovski said that

The project “Strengthening Border Police Capacities through Empowerment of Policewomen in the Western Balkans” is funded by Central European Initiative – CEI and implemented by MARRI to support the governments in the Western Balkans in strengthening the institutional capacities of the border authorities and specifically, in empowering the policewomen in border structures. Apart from the representatives of CEI and MARRI RC, the event was attended by MARRI Coordinators and the Gender Focal Points within Ministries of Interior/Security of MARRI Participants

The Prespa Forum Dialogue 2023 titled “Widened European family by 2030: mission (im)possible?” held on 15-16 June in Struga, gathered high-level regional and international decision-makers and officials, diplomats, prominent personalities of the academic and business community, civil society, and youth organizations’ representatives who used the excellent opportunity to share analyses, thoughts and ideas on a wide range of regional and international topics. The Forum’s Agenda included discussions on the pressing regional and European political-security issues, the Western Balkans integration processes

Skopje – The Regional Conference: “Successful Together! Regional Insights and Approaches on Preventing and Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings” crowned the implementation of the regional project “Preventing and Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings in the Western Balkans” (PaCT) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with MARRI as a strategic partner. The objective of the conference was to present project’s achievements and products but also,

MARRI Regional Centre is announcing an open call for engagement of an expert for conducting a research on the state of play of women in border police authorities in the Western Balkans. Strengthening Border Police Capacities through Empowerment of Policewomen in the Western Balkans is a project that MARRI RC developed to increase the participation of women in border police as one of the important prerequisites for achieving gender equality within the gender mainstreaming process. This project is co-financed by

The North Macedonia Presidency-in-Office of MARRI organized the traditional presentation of annual results and future plans – MARRI Friends Meeting, at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of North Macedonia.  The event gathered representatives of diplomatic corps, MARRI partners and donors, representatives of governmental institutions and civil sector to discuss past achievements and consider possibilities for joint efforts in the area of migration management in the Western Balkans. The audience was addressed by the Minister

The 2023 World Border Security Congress kicked off on 25 April in Skopje, North Macedonia, gathering border protection policy-makers, management and practitioners together with security industry professionals, to discuss current issues and future possibilities towards safe and secure border and migration management. Among other key note speakers, MARRI RC Director Sashko Kocev welcomed the audience. In his address, Director Kocev said that Western Balkan region must be proud of the achievements in the area of border management for which, the region

The challenges of effectively countering the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in human beings in the Western Balkans as well as the available solutions were the main topics of discussion at the Regional Practitioners Dialogue on Smuggling of Migrants by Air, Sea/Water, Land and Trafficking in Human Beings in the Western Balkans which took place on 30 – 31 March 2023 in Durres, Albania. The event, which is co-organised by MARRI and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in the framework

The regular session of the MARRI Permanent Working Group on Migration Statistics (PWG MS) gathered migration data experts from MARRI Participants’ Statistical Agencies and Ministries of Interior/Security to review the progress in implementation of group tasks in accordance with the agreed timeline. Following the briefing about the exchange of migration statistics through WB-MIDEX platform by Jordan Simonov, MARRI RC Migration Data and Policy Analyst, the delegations presented the state of affairs regarding the availability of data in their respective institutions, and