The United States has announced additional contributions of nearly $30 million to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) bringing the total contributions from the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration to IOM this fiscal year to over $136 million.
Included in this voluntary contribution is more than $29 million to fund the resettlement of refugees in the United States, bringing the total support for resettlement activities to nearly $128M in this fiscal year.
The United States is strongly committed to protecting and assisting refugees and offers resettlement to more refugees each year than all other countries in the world combined. Since 1975, more than three million refugees have made new homes in the United States, and nearly half of them have become U.S. citizens. The International Organization for Migration is a key partner of the U.S. resettlement program. More than 56,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. last year, almost all of them assisted by IOM.
As part of the over $136 million contribution to IOM, the U.S. is also providing $750,000 to IOM in support of its program for the voluntary repatriation of Liberian refugees in Ghana.
The United States announced the two contributions in letters sent this week by Ambassador Betty E. King, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, to IOM Director General William L. Swing.