
International Organization for Migration – IOM
Overview
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Founded Date January 1, 1951
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Company Description
In 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was established in reaction to the substantial influx of internally displaced individuals and war refugees that Europe experienced following World War II. The IOM has changed names multiple times since it was founded, but it was first a logistics organization that coordinated the transportation of around a million migrants in the 1950s. The evolution of the International Organization for Migration’s mandate over its existence is reflected in its transition from the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME) in 1951 to the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) in 1952, the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM) in 1980, and ultimately the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1989. The IOM is now the foremost intergovernmental organization in the field of migration.
Integration into the United Nations and the present (1990 to date)
In 1992, it was granted observer status at the United Nations General Assembly (GA resolution A/RES/47/4). In September 2016, the United Nations (UN) Member States, through the General Assembly, unanimously adopted a resolution approving the agreement to transform IOM into an affiliated organization of the UN. This agreement has strengthened the relationship between IOM and the UN and improved its ability to fulfill its respective mandates in the interests of migrants and Member States.
The IOM supported the creation of the Global Compact for Migration, the first-ever intergovernmental agreement on international migration which was adopted in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2018. To support the implementation, follow-up and review of the Global Compact on Migration, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres established the UN Network on Migration in 2019. IOM coordinates the United Nations Network on Migration which includes UNHCR, WFP and UNDP, among others. While the IOM’s history tracks the man-made and natural disasters of the past half century, including Kosovo and Timor 1999, and the Asian tsunami, the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Pakistan earthquake of 2004/2005, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and the European migrant crisis—its credo that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society has steadily gained more international acceptance.
International Organization for Migration – IOM Activities
The organization’s global mandate includes assistance to migrants, including migrant workers, refugees and internally displaced persons. This broad mandate of the organization has earned it praise for flexibility in crisis situations, but also criticism for legal accountability in protection issues. Due to complementary mandates, IOM often cooperates with the UNHCR.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), IOM is one of the central actors in humanitarian aid within the UN system, especially in the context of displacement. IOM’s main aid measures include shelter, protection, the provision of basic medical and sanitary care, life safety, coordination, telecommunications and logistics. On the instructions of the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, IOM, together with UNHCR, is primarily responsible for camp coordination and management in humanitarian emergencies. The organization is also active in stabilization, peacebuilding and development in the context of migration.