Belgium - IOM announced today that the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) – European Union (EU) Migration Action programme has enlarged the scope of its activities to include human trafficking and smuggling.

The move follows a decision made by the ACP-EU Council of Ministers to advance the ACP-EU partnership’s goal of tackling migration management challenges in a more concrete and comprehensive way.

IOM’s Regional Office in Brussels reports that the demand-driven programme will now provide technical expertise to governments and regional organizations in the key migration management areas of visas, readmission, remittances, and trafficking and smuggling of migrants.

ACP governments and regional organizations can request technical expertise according to their needs and priorities. Support is then provided through non-financial assistance by migration experts. Financial assistance for projects implemented by non-state actors is also foreseen as a way to involve civil society in the programme. 

The programme, launched in June 2014, is designed to ensure that concrete steps are taken towards the implementation of the recommendations of the ACP-EU Dialogue on Migration and Development. The dialogue, launched in 2010, has enabled fruitful discussion and exchange on migration-related challenges where strengthened and deepened cooperation among ACP-EU countries of origin, transit and destination are deemed necessary.

Since March 2015, the ACP-EU Migration Action programme has received 15 technical assistance requests from 13 ACP governments and 2 regional organizations. Eight requests were made in the field of remittances (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States; Somalia, Congo Brazzaville, Zambia, Mali, Guyana, Kenya and Madagascar). Another six were in the field of visas (COMESA, Namibia, Sudan, Benin, Guyana and Liberia) and one in the field of readmission (Burkina Faso).

The experts providing technical assistance to ACP governments are identified through a migration expert roster. Interested highly qualified experts from both public and private sectors available for short or mid-term assignments in ACP countries (maximum 60 working days) are invited to submit their application for registration in the roster.   

The ACP-EU Migration Action is supported by the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP Secretariat) and the EU. The Action is funded by the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) and implemented by IOM.

For further information, please contact ACP-EU Migration Action at the IOM Regional Office in Brussels, Tel: +32 2 287 78 10, Email: RCACPEUAction@iom.int - Web: www.acpeumigrationaction.iom.int