IOM to become UN body on September 19

Member States of the United Nations (UN), through the General Assembly, has unanimously adopted a resolution approving the agreement to make the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) a Related Organisation of the UN.

The agreement outlines a closer relationship between IOM and the UN to strengthen the cooperation and enhance their ability to fulfill their respective mandates in the interest of migrants and member states.

Through the agreement, the UN recognizes IOM as an indispensable actor in the field of human mobility. This includes protection of migrants and displaced people in migration-affected communities, as well as in areas of refugee resettlement and voluntary returns, and incorporates migration in country development plans.

This paves the way for the agreement to be signed by the UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon and IOM Director General William Lacy Swing at the UN Summit for Refugees and Migrants to be held on September 2016.

The Summit which comes at a time when global perceptions of migrants have grown negative and are increasingly informed by xenophobia, will focus the world’s attention on the challenge of global migration as a reality to be managed rather than as a problem to be solved, bringing together UN member states to address large movements of refugees and migrants for more humane and coordinated approach.