In the framework of Specific Objective 2 - Knowledge base, Expert Missions to the Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan took place in Astana on 18-21 August 2015 and in Tashkent on 24-26 August 2015, respectively. Four experts from the Project leading states affiliated with the Ministries of Internal Affairs of Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania, accompanied by the Prague Process Secretariat, have met the representatives of the governmental agencies responsible for the migration management in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The key objective of the mission consisted in the mutual exchange of information, discussion of issues pertaining to migration, and presentation of in the draft Migration Profiles.
The format of the expert mission included a round table on migration with the participation of key governmental agencies involved into migration management and bilateral meetings with individual governmental agencies. An important component of the mission also included meetings with EU delegations in both countries, OSCE representatives, UNHCR office in the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Embassies of the EU experts’ countries.
In the course of the mission to the Republic of Kazakhstan, representatives of the Ministries of National Economy, Foreign Affairs, Health and Social Development, and Internal Affairs as well as the Committee of National Security of the Republic of Kazakhstan have shared their views and data on the existing migration flows, migration management, and legislative framework, as well as their feedback on the draft 2013 Migration Profile Light of the Republic of Kazakhstan, prepared by the PP Secretariat in the course of the year 2014. The importance of international migration and related coordinated responses were highlighted during the roundtable.
During the mission to the Republic of Uzbekistan, the representatives of the four key Ministries of the Republic of Uzbekistan, involved into migration management, namely Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of Population and the External Labour Migration Agency have shared data and visions on migration policy and its implementation in the Republic of Uzbekistan. As regards the draft Migration Profile Light of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the representatives of the External Labour Migration Agency have provided the experts and the PP TI team with concrete data to include into the updated draft and also have made suggestions to include additional information, which would reflect both the specificity of migration situation in the Republic on the one hand, and the targeted governmental responses, on the other.
Both missions have resulted in a fruitful exchange of information, ideas for cooperation, and re-introduction of the Prague Process. As an outcome of the exchange, the partners agreed to jointly continue developing the draft Migration Profile of each respective country in the framework of the Specific Objective 2 – Knowledge base, which will be available to other Prague Process countries via the on-line dissemination tool the i-Map at http://www.imap-migration.org/ and on the Prague Process website.
