# International Centre for Migration Policy Development

The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is an international organisation which makes policy recommendations on migration-related issues to governments and intergovernmental agencies. Founded by Austria and Switzerland as a think tank in 1993, and headquartered in Vienna. As of May 2023 ICMPD was composed of 20 member states.

## Financing

Every year ICMPD discloses in its annual report how it is financed. Additional figures were disclosed by the German government upon request by Andrej Hunko, Michel Brandt, Christine Buchholz, other members of the European Parliament and The Left. As of 2020 the annual membership fee for Germany was 210,000 euros.
In 2015 its budget was 16.8 million euros, in 2022 it was already 74.5 million, 56 percent of which came from the European Commission. Also, as an international organization, ICMPD has hardly been subject to financial transparency obligations.
As of 2021, ICMPD has been implementing the "integrated border management programme" together with the Italian Ministry of the Interior, which is financed by the EU Trust Fund for Africa (2021–2027) over €7.39 billion.

## Projects

ICMPD was originally founded as a civilian think tank, and until 2015 it was focused on Eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Since January 2019, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands have been co-financing the 400,000 euros "RESTART" project to build resettlement (consistently called "reintegration") for Armenian refugees (called "returnees") over a period of 24 months.$^{:3}$ Germany has participated in co-financing the construction of a temporary reception center for asylum seekers in Armenia with 158,000 euros.$^{:3}$ The project has intended to promote voluntary return, resettlement in the home country by means of benefits in kind in the form of social advice and support, among other things, with the help of finding accommodation, visits to authorities, children's schooling, medical matters and assistance in job search and vocational training, the long-term improvement of living conditions of the returnees and the prevention of new irregular migration to Germany and Europe and fighting the causes of flight.
Under a so-called "migration and diaspora program", ICMPD carried out training on behalf of the German Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on "development-oriented migration" with Albania, Ecuador, Georgia, Ghana, Indonesia, Colombia, Kosovo and Serbia, which it calls "partner countries". GIZ has also cooperated with ICMPD in prevention and combat of human trafficking in the Western Balkans.
Since 2016 ICMPD has moved its focus to North African countries, like Libya, Tunisia, Morocco and directly implements border control projects, organizes the procurement for border upgrades; it is involved in designing curricula for police training programs and in developing surveillance technology.
In October 2020, the Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) wrote to then Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer, he planned to implement a special kind of digital refugee card in Bavaria, which could serve as a debit card, in cooperation with Michael Spindelegger and the ICMPD, which would serve as a model for similar projects in Europe. Seehofer even described the plan as a "lighthouse project". The idea of the debit card carrying other personal data, which could be retrieved by police terminals was developed by Jan Marsalek then CFO of the now defunct wirecard.
In April 2023, NGO "SOS Balkan Route" criticized the involvement of the ICMPD with the refugee camp Lipa. The ICMPD denied the allegations and initiated legal action against the NGO in Mai. The NGO considers this a SLAPP lawsuit.

## Purpose

The International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) is an intergovernmental organization that collaborates with national governments, diverse international entities, research institutions, and civil society stakeholders to craft migration-related policies and administer training initiatives. ICMPD's core mission revolves around the promotion and advancement of migration policies. The organization serves as an intermediary, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and services between governments and various organizations. ICMPD assumes a pivotal role in furnishing policymakers with a substantive foundation, equipping them for decision-making within the domain of migration. ICMPD is also operational and engaged in capacity building in various areas of migration governance.

## Organisational structure

ICMPD had around 480 staff members, a mission in Brussels, regional offices in Ankara and Malta, as well as project offices in Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia.

### Director Generals

* Jonas Widgren (1993–2004)
* Gottfried Zürcher (2004–2009)
* Peter Widermann (2010–2014)
* Gabriela Abado (Acting Director General, 2015)
* Michael Spindelegger (2016–present)
The Office of the Director General consists of Secretariat, Communications, Directorate for Policy, Research and Strategy, Directorate Migration Dialogues and Cooperation, Brussels Mission, People Management and Organisational Development, Corporate Financial Management. The Policy, Research & Strategy (PRS) is headed by Director, and Deputy Director General Lukas Gehrke. Operations Support is headed by Sergio Pagliarulo. Migration Dialogues and Cooperation (MDC) is headed by Director a.i. Sedef Dearing. The Brussels Mission, is headed by Ralph Genetzke. According to reports in January 2025 former Austrian Minister for Women's Affairs Susanne Raab has applied for a job with the Office of the Director General.

## Member states

ICMPD was founded in 1993 by Austria and Switzerland. It was joined in 1995 by Hungary and then in 1998 by Slovenia. The Czech Republic became a member in 2001, followed by Portugal and Sweden in 2002, Bulgaria and Poland in 2003, Croatia in 2004, Slovakia in 2006, Romania in 2010, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia in 2011, and the Republic of North Macedonia in 2012. Malta and Turkey both joined in 2018.
In 2020, Germany joined on the basis of a declaration of international contract law issued by the Federal President. Within the Federal Government, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Germany) is in charge and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has been involved as a business unit authority.$^{:3}$ Recently the Netherlands joined ICMPD in May 2023.