Regional Civil Society Consultation for Europe and Central Asia on the MICIC initiative

The Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative (MICIC) is a government-led process started in 2013 to discuss how to better prepare and respond to situations where the safety, dignity and rights of migrants are at peril as a result of a sudden or acute crisis. In the MICIC initiative, “acute crisis’ is being defined as conflict and natural disaster.

MICIC  aims  to  respond  to  the  current  gap  within  established  frameworks  for  ensuring protection for migrants in those situations, in comparison to existing migration frameworks in other areas e.g. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.  The goal of MICIC is to collect and organise principles and practices into a set of guidelines that can be used by actors of all kinds in crisis situations.

MADE and the Global Coalition on Migration (GCM) have been facilitating dialogues and conversations between civil society delegates, first in Asia with the 'Civil Society Inputs to MICIC Initiative South East, South, & East Asian Regional Consultation' held in Manila, the Philippines on 21-22 March 2015. The second regional civil society consultation on the MICIC initiative and the first one specifically focusing on Europe and Central Asia took place in Brussels on 24 June 2015.

This civil society consultation focused on crises in or affecting Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as well as the Mediterranean,  with a specific focus on the role  of civil society, including the diaspora in such situations.

20 civil society participants, including representatives from migrant, refugee and diaspora organisations from 13 European and Central Asian countries, took part in a lively discussion and formulated recommendations and actions points that were presented during the government consultation on the MICIC initiative the following day.  

Recommendations and action points

A consolidated version of the civil society recommendations for Europe and Central Asia to the MICIC initiative will be available in the coming weeks and published on the MADE website.

Civil society and MICIC

The 5-year 8-point Action Plan is the cornerstone of civil society advocacy at the 2013 UN High Level Dialogue on Migration & Development (UNHLD), and the situation of stranded migrants was one of eight points highlighted as priorities within the UN Secretary General’s Action Agenda. Point 3 of that agenda specifically calls for “reliable, multi-actor mechanisms to address the assistance and protection needs of migrants stranded in distress”.

As a key part of its consultation process, MICIC is holding six regional state consultations in 2015 and 2016. The first for Asia and the Middle East took place in Manila in February; the second one for Eastern Europe and Central Asia took place in Brussels on 25-26 June 2015. Next meetings will take place in Jordan, Senegal and Costa Rica.

Beginning in Manila, civil society was invited to participate  in the regional state consultations by organising a “pre-meeting” of civil society organisations to discuss and formulate MICIC-related  perspectives  and  to  then  send  several  representatives  to  present  civil  society perspectives directly in the States consultation held right afterwards.

In that regard, GCM and MADE came together to organise that civil society activity.

Civil Society regional consultation objectives are to:

• Provide a briefing and orientation for civil society on the MICIC Initiative and activities that form part of the initiative
• Formulate civil society recommendations to the MICIC Initiative on rights-based, migrant-centered response mechanisms
• Develop a collective civil society advocacy strategy on expanding the MICIC framework and its intended Guidelines and Principles

For further information

• Agenda - Regional Civil Society Consultation for Europe and Central Asia (Brussels, 24 June 2015) 
• Background Paper
• Reflections of civil society - (outcome document from Civil Consultation held in Manila, March 2015) by William Gois, Regional Coordinator, Migrant Forum in Asia

Contact Sophie Ngo-Diep, Europe Chapter Coordinator, for further information.