IOM COUNCIL
Statement by Lynn Cassel
Deputy Chief of Mission
U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva

December 1, 2005
Palais des Nations

Ninetieth Session of the Council of the International Organization for Migration

Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Colleagues:

Under the energetic leadership of the Director General and Deputy Director General, IOM management and staff have continued their solid tradition of responsiveness to the needs of millions of migrants, including refugees, internally displaced persons and trafficking victims.

IOM continues to grow and we join in welcoming the Republics of Ghana, Cameroon, Belarus, and Togo, as well as Islamic Relief. Membership comes with obligations as well as benefits, and in this regard we acknowledge the Administration’s efforts to encourage Member States to settle their arrears promptly. We urge all States to work to resolve this chronic problem.

As IOM grows in both programs and membership, the Council must exercise appropriate oversight to ensure that the organization’s central management and administrative control systems are commensurate with its responsibilities. We caution IOM not to broaden its programs too widely over the spectrum of humanitarian activities and to continue to focus on IOM’s mandate and professional competencies, as defined by its core service areas.

In the area of refugees and internally displaced populations, we note IOM’s enhanced collaborative efforts with the UN, including UNHCR, and other international organizations. We commend IOM’s work particularly in the repatriation of Angolan and Liberian refugees, assistance to IDPs in Colombia, capacity-building work in Iraq, and out of country voting. We also commend IOM on another successful IOM-UNHCR joint seminar on Mixed Migratory Flows and contingency planning in the Caribbean, hosted by the government of Trinidad & Tobago in October.

The U.S. government has undertaken unprecedented efforts to combat trafficking domestically and around the world. In September 2003, President Bush announced that the United States Government would commit $50 million for additional counter-trafficking programs. Through this initiative and other funding, we continue to support IOM activities in this field, particularly in the areas of prevention, assistance to victims, and institutional capacity building. IOM’s proactive work to develop performance indicators to evaluate counter-trafficking programs is also to be commended.

As we review the past year, we note that IOM has demonstrated its strength in operational programs. We also note that IOM faces many challenges in the years ahead as it responds to the ever-increasing complexity of migratory movements and related international policy issues. The United States is following closely IOM’s next steps in response to the report of the Global Commission on International Migration. We understand that on December 15, consideration will be given to expanding the Geneva Migration Group. We would strongly encourage that, in order to maximize the benefits of its coordination activities, the GMG remain in Geneva and remain an informal gathering of relevant organizations.

We are also following discussions for the September 2006 UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development. Given IOM’s vast expertise in this area, we look forward to its active participation in and contribution to the High Level Dialogue. We also continue to work with the Administration, the Chairman of the Council, and other Member States to devise a Strategy Paper that focuses on IOM’s comparative advantages in the field, as well as goals and objectives for the organization over the next three to five years. Migration is becoming increasingly complex and receiving greater international attention. Therefore, this strategy should provide IOM with a focused vision of its future and purpose but should not restrict its flexibility nor weaken the fiscal discipline of project-based funding.

This year’s International Dialogue on Migration – Toward Policy Coherence on Migration – has been timely. As you know, the U.S. continues to strongly support regional dialogues. These dialogues provide an opportunity to exchange views that inform individual states as they work to strengthen their capacity and increase policy coherence at the national level to more effectively manage migration. We congratulate IOM on the continued successful role it plays in helping to shape discussions in many of these regional dialogues.

The U.S. has found that coordination on migration issues is most effective and concrete when relevant national government officials that have direct responsibility for migration policy come together for informal, frank discussions at the regional level and to share best practices in migration management. The United States believes that effective coordination on migration issues at bilateral and regional levels, where states share similar challenges and focus on specific, concrete and practical issues, is key to ensuring that migration remains, on balance, a positive phenomenon for generations to come.