Being drafted with technical assistance of IOM, the GCM voluntary review report, was discussed and endorsed by the Moldovan Government on 22 September 2020 during the most recent session of the National Commission Coordinating the Activities in the Field of Migration and Asylum, chaired by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mr. Gheorghe Balan and attended physically and by on-line means by more than 20 representatives of relevant ministries, public agencies, CSOs, and international organizations.

During his introductory speech, Mr. Balan emphasized the importance of achieving this milestone by the Republic of Moldova and thus expressed his gratitude to all stakeholders for their timely involvement in providing relevant information and comments on the recent developments, challenges and perspectives concerning the implementation of the 23 objectives of GCM by Moldova. As well, the State Secretary of Interior Affairs addressed words of appreciation to Mr. Lars Lönnback, chief of IOM Mission to Moldova for the meaningful support provided by IOM to national stakeholders in the preparation, implementation and reporting phases of GCM priority actions.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Lars Lönnback, mentioned that the Republic of Moldova is globally in the forefront of the migration management work, being an active supporter of developing the GCM and took an active role in the process by providing relevant input to the draft document, underlining, as well, that “the implementation of the GCM is an opportunity for the country to further enhance migration governance, to address the challenges and reap the benefits of migration in cooperation with other states”.

The national endorsed review report highlights a series of activities and major achievements of policies and initiatives implemented in compliance with 23 objectives assumed by the country since the adoption of the GCM.

The most important developments in Moldova mentioned by the report include the newly applied international methodology, using the statistical definition of an international migrant, resulting in improved estimations of migration and usual resident population, to support objective 1 of the GCM; facilitated immigration procedures for immigrants wanting to work/invest, including due to COVID-19 context, under objective 5; amended labour migration management regulatory and institutional framework to ensure efficient certification and monitoring of private recruitment sector, based on fair and ethical recruitment principles of labour migrants, under objective 6; a national mechanism for recognition and certification of qualifications acquired by labour migrants in the context of informal and non-formal education, under objective 18; a new strategic framework regarding integrated state border management and prevention, combatting and eradication of trafficking in human beings in the context of international migration implemented under objective 11; close cooperation with the EUBAM mission, FRONTEX Agency, international organization in line with the areas of common interest (OSCE, INTERPOL, EUROPOL), under objective 23.

Moreover, the report underlines the main challenges and opportunities for migration policy and practice for the next period such as i) addressing the impact of migration on human capital from Moldova from the perspective of brain drain and loss of skills (objective 19); ii) valorizing the skills and resources of diaspora and returning migrants, and protecting the vulnerable groups dependent on remittances (objectives 19, 21 and 22); iii) enhancing migration and border management to facilitate human mobility under new COVID-19 context (objectives 5 and 11).

In her intervention Ms. Olga Poalelungi, the chief of the Bureau for Migration and Asylum, underscored the latest developments and priority actions for Moldova in the migration field, including the ongoing work on a new concept in the field of migration, in the context of changing regional and global mobility patterns.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. Lars Lönnback, thanked the audience for the fruitful discussions and draw attention to the fact that when moving forward with the implementation of GCM in Moldova the ongoing debates on the perspectives and evolutions of the mobility and migration within Eastern Partnership which are taking place in the preparation of the next EaP Summit Meeting should be taken into consideration, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic impact on migration management.