The International Organization for Migration is the leading inter-governmental organization promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all, with a presence in over 100 countries, and supporting 174 member states to improve migration management. In 2019, IOM provided support to 30 million persons, including 23 million persons on the move (internally displaced persons, migrants and refugees) and 7 million host community members. 

IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.

The Organization works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, be they refugees, displaced persons or other uprooted people. The IOM Constitution gives explicit recognition to the link between migration and economic, social and cultural development, as well as to the right of freedom of movement of persons.

It also operates in the four broad areas of migration management: migration and development, facilitating migration, regulating migration, and addressing forced migration. Cross-cutting activities include the promotion of international migration law, policy debate and guidance, protection of migrants’ rights, migration health and the gender dimension of migration.

IOM works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners.

Established in 1951, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration and is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. IOM is part of the United Nations system, as a related organization.

IOM supports migrants across the world, developing effective responses to the shifting dynamics of migration and, as such, is a key source of advice on migration policy and practice. The organization works in emergency situations, developing the resilience of all people on the move, and particularly those in situations of vulnerability, as well as building capacity within governments to manage all forms and impacts of mobility.

The Organization is guided by the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, including upholding human rights for all. Respect for the rights, dignity and well-being of migrants remains paramount.

The organization’s work is guided by several core frameworks. The 12-point strategy, adopted by IOM’s Council in 2007, outlines the core objectives of the Organization, and provides an effective description of the scope of IOM’s work. In 2015, IOM Member States endorsed the Migration Governance Framework (MiGOF), which sets out overarching objectives and principles which, if fulfilled and enacted, form the basis for an effective approach to migration governance.

In 2019, at the request of the Director General, a five-year Strategic Vision was elaborated to support the overall strategic planning and direction of IOM. This document represents the Organization’s reflection on its needs and priorities, based on a landscape assessment of what the next decade of mobility will bring, and how IOM as an organization needs to develop over the five-year period – from 2019 to 2023 – in order to meet new and emerging responsibilities.

For more information about the organization and its key activities and impact, please see the IOM Snapshot, which is regularly updated.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), or as it was first known, the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME), was born in 1951 out of the chaos and displacement of Western Europe following the Second World War.

Mandated to help European governments to identify resettlement countries for the estimated 11 million people uprooted by the war, it arranged transport for nearly a million migrants during the 1950s.

A succession of name changes from PICMME to the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) in 1952, to the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM) in 1980 to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1989, reflects the organization's transition over half a century from logistics agency to migration agency.

While IOM's history tracks the man-made and natural disasters of the past half century - Hungary 1956, Czechoslovakia 1968, Chile 1973, the Vietnamese Boat People 1975, Kuwait 1990, Kosovo and Timor 1999, and the Asian tsunami and Pakistan earthquake of 2004/2005 - its credo that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society has steadily gained international acceptance.

From its roots as an operational logistics agency, it has broadened its scope to become the leading international agency working with governments and civil society to advance the understanding of migration issues, encourage social and economic development through migration, and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.

The broader scope of activities has been matched by rapid expansion from a relatively small agency into one with an annual operating budget of an estimated $1.5 billion and more than 10,000 staff working in over 150 countries worldwide. IOM currently has 173 Member States and a further 8 states holding Observer status.

As "The Migration Agency" IOM has become the point of reference in the heated global debate on the social, economic and political implications of migration in the 21st century.