IOM Worldwide – Key Facts and Figures
as at February 2006

With its HQ in Geneva, it appears that IOM operates in a similar way to any large international organisation. However, it is highly decentralised and project-based, which makes it extremely cost-conscious.

Thus, it has adopted a policy of assigning all costs to individual projects which are managed to ensure that delivery is timely and within budget and that reporting is transparent.

As a further measure to achieve cost efficiencies IOM has embarked on an exercise to transfer certain functions from headquarters to lower cost locations. The Manila Administrative Centre currently covers staff security co-ordination, project tracking, health claims, personnel file management and other labour-intensive functions.

IOM is at present thinking about establishing a second administrative centre outside of its headquarters in Geneva.

Headquarters' functions are supported by a 5% levy on direct costs for each programme. This levy rate is one of the lowest among international organisations.

IOM's total estimated budget for 2005 is well in excess of one billion US dollars. Over 30 million US dollars or 3% of this is the Administrative Budget assessed for all member states; the Operational Budget, which is the sum total of all programme activity for which IOM must seek funding, represents 95% of the total budget, ie about 1.1 billion US dollars.

IOM in the UK

There has seen a substantial increase in our activities to help migrants, particularly in our largest activity, ie assisted voluntary return from the UK which is funded by the UK Government and the European Refugee Fund. Since January 2006, with the support of the Border and Immigration Agency (previously known as the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office), we have offered significantly more generous reintegration assistance to returnees. This has vastly expanded our operational work, resulting in an increase in the number of returnees from a monthly average of over 300 people last year to 522 in February 2006, with good prospects for further growth.

Our scope of activities also includes special attention to vulnerable cases such as unaccompanied minors and victims of trafficking.

IOM's assistance to resettlement in the UK remains relatively small with IOM now providing cultural orientation as well as health screening and transportation for up to 500 participants per year under the UK Gateway Protection Programme.

The Border and Immigration Agency (previously known as the Immigration and Nationality Directorate of the Home Office), the Foreign Office, and DFID continue to support IOM programmes abroad. These are designed to help other countries manage their migration, respond to emergency displacements and help ensure that reliable information about UK requirements is made available to people considering migration to the UK. In 2005, this support amounted to an estimated £15 million .

IOM's UK staff has grown to sixty with the opening in 2005 of two new offices, in Liverpool and Glasgow; and Bristol office opening in January 2007.

At the end of February 2006, under IOM's voluntary return programmes in the UK, a total of over 15,500 people returned to their home countries with our assistance since the first IOM voluntary return programme began in 1999. (See the chart below).

We have been able to assist not only asylum seekers but also irregular migrants whose number was recently estimated to be around 500,000 in the UK. This implies that our voluntary return programme's potential for growth remains significant. Although AVRIM, the programme for irregular migrants, only started in November 2004, as at end February 2006, 545 people have left the UK under this programme.

The major countries of return continue to be Iraq, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Iran with substantial returns to Iraq and Afghanistan. Worth noting also is that since we started with the AVRIM programme, Brazil has become one of our top countries of return, and although less dramatic in terms of numbers, departures to Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Angola and China are nonetheless quite notable as we embark upon the new year.