On 23 March 2017, experts from Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden and European Commission brought knowledge and experience with refugee integration during the conference in Bratislava on The Role of Municipalities in the Integration of Refugees which was organised by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the coordinator of the European Migration Network (EMN) National Contact Point for the Slovak Republic.

The Conference welcomed more than 60 participants from various towns and cities, self-governing regions, state and public administration and intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations from the Slovak Republic. From representatives of the Czech municipality of Bzenec, Swedish municipality of Åre, German municipality of Nuremberg and Austrian municipality of Vienna, the participants learned about good practice, experience as well as challenges in the refugee integration in the area of accommodation, education, employment, social and cultural orientation as well as involvement of the local community in the integration process.

The current EU policy framework was introduced by the representative of the European Commission.

Situation of refugee integration in Slovakia was elaborated by experts from the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic, Migration Office of the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, Association of Towns and Communities of Slovakia, the non-governmental organizations ADRA Slovakia / OZ Marginal, Initiative Who Will Help? and the Centre for the Research of Ethnicity and Culture (CVEK).

More information about the conference, presentations, photographs and other materials are available on the EMN web site.