Astana, 02 April 2015 – From March 30 to April 1 2015, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Sub regional office for Central Asia  conducted a regional training on “Migration Management and Capacity Building on Irregular Migration” in Almaty, Kazakhstan, in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Participating in the regional training were border and immigration officials from the governments of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan. The trainings modules were designed and presented by IOM experts/trainers. The objectives of the training were to: i/ bring together representatives of relevant migration related government agencies from the Central Asian countries with international experts in order to exchange good practices on migration management and discuss challenges regarding irregular migration; ii/ present border and immigration officials with the latest tools to assess risks and improve migration management; iii/ identify needs for countering irregular migration on national and regional levels; and vi/ find ways in which the international community inter-alia with CA governments can best facilitate and provide assistance.

The participants went through team exercises to identify challenges. Many common themes emerged during the discussions, such as national security threats (terrorism, extremism, radicalization), brain drain and demographic challenges, availability and sharing of statistics, need in highly qualified labour force (Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), need to create jobs and keep qualified work force (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), maintain connection with diasporas (Uzbekistan), need to address circular migration (Tajikistan), economic  aspects of migration (remittances), interagency and intra-agency cooperation, measures to facilitate local border movements (Turkmenistan), visa facilitation and registration requirements, protection of the labour force and demography (Kazakhstan).

Participants were exposed to migration policy, migration management and principles of international migration law in particular regarding migrants’ social, economic and labour rights.

Finally, the importance of interagency and intra-agency collaboration among different institutions related to implementation of necessary reforms was highlighted for controlling irregular migration.

The regional training was funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) of the U.S. Department of State under the IOM project “Addressing Mixed Migration Flows through capacity building in Central Asia”. The project foresees a series of regional events for Central Asian countries and supports the aims of the Regional Consultative Process for Central Asia, “Almaty Process”.