Enabel and Myria sign cooperation agreement

Brussels, Belgium | Enabel and Belgium’s Federal Migration Centre Myria sign an agreement to strengthen their collaboration.

Myria is an independent public institution that analyses migration, defends the rights of foreigners and combats human smuggling and trafficking. The Migration Centre promotes public policies based on evidence and human rights. Cooperation with this institution will strengthen Enabel’s human mobility activities in partner countries.

“As Enabel works on migration in several countries, this cooperation agreement is of added value to our projects,” says Enabel’s General manager Jean Van Wetter. “In Guinea, for example, the expertise of Myria can be used to support the National Institute of Statistics to better monitor and analyse migration flows in the country. This, in turn, helps to develop or reorient their policy strategy and is therefore also instrumental for our projects.”

The availability and analysis of migration data is a major challenge for the management of human mobility worldwide. Adequate migration policy needs accurate data and the analysis of that information.

Myria in Belgium

In Belgium, Myria is of major importance for Belgium’s asylum and migration policy. Also in this area cooperation between the agency and the federal institution is of added value. Many migrants – including refugees – who live in Belgium originate from countries where Enabel operates. Enabel’s knowledge of these countries and of the local situation and its access to data collected in these countries can serve Myria’s work in Belgium.

“Human mobility is where administrative regulations and personal rights intersect. It is a developing branch of the law, in Belgium and within the European Union,” says Koen Dewulf, Myria’s director. “Because of the demography, migration has only become more important in recent decades, not only with us but in many countries. Dissemination of reliable, comparable and transparent data should help to better understand human mobility. Factual knowledge about population composition and migration movements should contribute to a policy that is more sensitive to reality and to people’s rights.”

Other partnerships will follow, such as in Morocco and Senegal, where a pilot project on entrepreneurial mobility with Belgium is currently being launched.

About Myria

Myria is an independent public institution. Since 2014 the Federal Migration Centre analyses migration, defends the rights of foreigners and combats human smuggling and trafficking. Myria promotes public policies based on evidence and human rights.

More information?

Joris Delporte – +32 468 01 65 45 – joris.delporte@myria.be