In collaboration with IOM Azerbaijan, the MICIC team facilitated a segment on crisis management for the Workshop on the Consular Reference Manual for Senior Officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held in Baku on November 29 and 30. The event, attended by 23 staff members of the Azerbaijan consular corps and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, provided a forum to discuss key issues related to consular assistance and protection, and the content of the Consular Reference Manual recently issued by IOM in collaboration with the MFA of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The event is the last step in a long-standing, continued partnership between IOM and the Government of Azerbaijan on issues related to the protection of nationals abroad in the event of a crisis. Over the last few years, IOM has contributed to the development of the crisis management section of the Consular Reference Manual, has developed a localized version of the eLearning course on crisis management for consular staff and the smartphone application for emergency communications with nationals abroad, and is still supporting the roll out of the latter two products. The application, in particular, will allow migrants to access basic consular assistance, receive warnings and emergency communications, and request specific support when facing hardship. Moreover, IOM has worked to translate the MICIC Guidelines in Azerbaijani language, and regularly contributes to enhancing knowledge and skills of government officials through capacity building and experience sharing workshops on the topic.

The workshop was organized in the framework of the project “Consolidation of Migration and Border Management Capacities in Azerbaijan (CMBA)” funded by the European Union and co funded by BP and its co-venturers, the US Department of State through its Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and the State Migration Service (SMS) of the Republic of Azerbaijan.