IOM’s Vision

IOM strives to protect migrant workers and to optimize the benefits of labour migration for both the country of origin and destination as well as for the migrants themselves.

IOM’s Objectives

In its labour migration programming, IOM builds capacity in labour migration management by:

• offering policy and technical advice to national governments;
• supporting the development of policies, legislation and administrative structures that promote efficient, effective and transparent labour migration flows;
• assisting  governments to promote safe labour migration practices for their nationals;
• facilitating the recruitment of workers, including pre-departure training and embarkation preparedness;
• promoting the integration of labour migrants in their new workplace and society.

Principal Beneficiaries

IOM implements various labour migration programmes in 70 countries.  The beneficiaries of these programmes include:

• migrants, their families and their communities;
• local and national governments;
• private sector entities such as employers and industry representatives; and
• regional organizations.

IOM’s Approach

Through its global network of more than 400 offices, IOM is able to bring together governments, civil society and the private sector to establish labour migration programmes and mechanisms that balance their various interests, and address migrants’ needs.  The IOM approach to international labour migration is to foster the synergies between labour migration and development, and to promote legal avenues of labour migration as an alternative to irregular migration.  Moreover, IOM aims to facilitate the development of policies and programmes that are in the interest of migrants and society, providing effective protection and assistance to labour migrants and their families.

IOM works in partnership with governments, the United Nations, international and non-governmental organizations, the private sector and development partners on all aspects of counter-trafficking responses – prevention, protection, and prosecution.

Since the mid-1990s, IOM and its partners have provided protection and assistance to close to 100,000 men, women and children, who were trafficked for sexual and labour exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude, or for organ removal. Agriculture, fishing, domestic work and hospitality, commercial sexual exploitation, pornography, begging, construction and manufacturing are some of the sectors in which victims were exploited.

IOM takes a comprehensive approach to addressing human trafficking. Respect for human rights, the physical, mental and social well-being of the individual and his or her community, and the sustainability of our actions through institutional capacity development and partnerships are at the centre of all of IOM’s counter-trafficking efforts.

IOM encourages the entire international community to engage in the fight against trafficking. It does so by participating in, and leading, a number of regional and international multilateral processes, including the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), and Alliance 8.7. IOM also works with the humanitarian community to ensure that the risk of trafficking is mitigated and addressed from the earliest stages of humanitarian responses. 

Capacity Development

IOM aims to support governments, civil society organizations, international organizations, and the private sector to combat human trafficking.

This includes support to strengthen policies and procedures to facilitate the identification, referral, and protection and assistance of trafficked persons; improvements to anti-trafficking legislation and regulations and their implementation; and advisory services to private sector entities aiming to eliminate exploitation from their operations and supply chains.

This includes actions to promote the ethical recruitment of migrant workers, for example through IOM’s International Recruitment Integrity System (IRIS), which is a due diligence tool for businesses, governments and workers.

Preventing Human Trafficking and Protecting Victims

Through information campaigns and outreach, IOM seeks to equip vulnerable populations with the information they need to migrate safely and access assistance when necessary. IOM also aims to address the root causes of vulnerability to trafficking through programming at the household, community, and structural levels.

IOM provides protection and assistance to victims of trafficking. Ensuring freedom and a chance at a new life, IOM’s assistance can include safe accommodation, medical and psychosocial support, and assisted voluntary return and reintegration.

In addition to its country-level programming, IOM employs an emergency support mechanism, the Global Assistance Fund, which, since its establishment in 2000, has helped 2,700 victims of trafficking and other migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse.

Strengthening the Evidence Base

IOM’s programming provides a unique source of primary data on human trafficking. IOM maintains the largest database of victim case data in the world, which contains case records for over 50,000 trafficked persons who were assisted by IOM. In 2017, IOM launched the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative, which is the first global, open-access data hub on human trafficking.

The platform hosts not only data from IOM, but also victim case data from other anti-trafficking organizations, combined into one centralized, harmonized, and anonymized dataset. It currently includes case records of over 80,000 trafficked persons from 171 countries who were exploited in 170 countries.

Through its Displacement Tracking Matrix, IOM routinely collects data on human trafficking and associated forms of exploitation and abuse in situations of humanitarian crisis, displacement, and large-scale migration. For example, IOM monitors flows along the Eastern and Central Mediterranean migration routes and has collected data from over 26,000 migrants. Data includes information on migrants’ experiences that may be associated with human trafficking or other exploitative practices during their journey to Europe.

IOM’s victim case data is used to inform policy and programming, including for estimating prevalence and measuring the impact of anti-trafficking interventions.

IOM's Growing Effort – Counter Trafficking in a Humanitarian Setting

Internally displaced-persons (IDPs), host communities, returnees, and refugees are usually the primary beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance, IOM continues to advocate for including as beneficiaries victims of trafficking who are among the crisis-affected population.  As part of its ever-expending CT effort in humanitarian settings, IOM builds the capacity of humanitarian stakeholders through training and to ensure that identified trafficked persons also benefit from the life-saving humanitarian assistance.

In addition, IOM conducts awareness raising campaigns among at-risk crisis-affected groups to prevent trafficking.  IOM also remains the leading agency in the field in coordinating assistance for victims of trafficking identified in humanitarian settings.

One of IOM's priority policy areas is migration and development. The close relationship between migration and development was underlined in IOM's 1951 founding document. Recent changes in the volumes, routes, and types of migratory flows, however, have increased the depth and breadth of migration's effects.

The result is greater focus on the complexity of the relationship between migration and development and, most significantly, on how migration can be a positive force for development.

Check the Resources tab for a sampling of the many IOM products about policy advice on migration and development.

The World Migration Report 2018 is the ninth in the series. Since 2000, IOM has been producing world migration reports to contribute to increased understanding of migration throughout the world. This new edition presents key data and information on migration as well as thematic chapters on highly topical migration issues. Please click on the links below to access the report. The report can be downloaded as a whole, or by separate chapters.

Table of Contents

• Director General's Foreword
• Chapter 1 - Report Overview: Making sense of migration in an increasingly interconnected world

Part I: Data and information on migration

• Chapter 2 - Migration and migrants: A global overview
• Chapter 3 - Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments
• Chapter 4 - Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Part II: Complex and emerging migration issues

• Chapter 5 - Global migration governance: Existing architecture and recent developments
• Chapter 6 - Mobility, migration and transnational connectivity
• Chapter 7 - Understanding migration journeys from migrants’ perspectives
• Chapter 8 - Media reporting of migrants and migration
• Chapter 9 - Migration, violent extremism and social exclusion
• Chapter 10 - Migrants and cities: Stepping beyond World Migration Report 2015

IOM holds the view that sustained dialogue facilitates the identification of joint priorities, the exchange of good practices and the strengthening of synergies between IOM and civil society.

To facilitate a sustained dialogue with NGOs having a mandate related to migration, since 2011 IOM organizes Annual CSO Consultations. 

The Annual CSO Consultations have addressed various themes as follows:

• 60 Years Advancing Migrant Rights and Migrant Protection (11 November 2011)
• Enhancing Dialogue, Cooperation and Partnership on Migration (25 October 2012)
• Migrants and Development (12 September 2013)
• Follow up to the 2013 UN High Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (9 October 2014)
• Protecting and Positively Impacting Migrant Lives (18 September 2015) and
• Post–19 September Summit (4 November 2016). 

Since 2015 IOM also organizes annual IOM-NGO Humanitarian Consultations for NGOs engaged in humanitarian aspects of migration, including:

• IOM’s role and emerging policy in humanitarian response and partnership (13 June 2016)
• Partnerships (30 June 2015)

IOM-NGO Humanitarian Consultations are an annual platform for IOM and NGOs to engage in dialogue, discuss shared values and unity of purpose, identify respective strengths and limitations, reflect on current challenges facing the humanitarian sector, exchange best practices, develop key recommendations to further joint engagement, and examine the realities of the implementation of the Principles of Partnership to better foster their application.

Humanitarian Consultations complement IOM’s thematically wider annual consultations with the broader civil society.

Meant as a two-way discussion beneficial to the joint work of IOM and humanitarian NGO partners, Humanitarian Consultations are jointly organized by IOM and the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), with the goal of strengthening effective and principled crisis response.

IOM provides advice and support to governments and partners, with the overall aim to develop effective national, regional and global migration policies and strategies. IOM strives to establish internal and external coherence with regard to its approach to migration governance as a whole – including, but not limited to, protection and humanitarian policy – as it relates to migration and development.