The IOM arranges the "voluntary" return of people to warzones, dictatorships and areas of famine. The opening of their Glasgow office and the "incentivising" scam coincides with a push by the city council to evict hundreds of people refused asylum from their homes prior to the handover of asylum accommodation to private companies in February. The stark choice they are faced with is: take your chances on the winter streets of Glasgow, or gamble on a dubious bribe from the IOM to return home.
In recent years the IOM has moved from managing the movement of economic migrants to assisting states to control forced migration, that is, keeping out or sending back people seeking political asylum, fleeing wars, persecution, famine. Unlike the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the IOM has no humanitarian remit, and it's move into controlling the movement of people seeking asylum has raised alarm amongst human rights, refugee and aid agencies. The UNHCR has condemned the return of people to war-torn countries such as Iraq and Somalia, but the IOM is only too willing ignore humanitarian concerns and do the dirty deeds of governments eager to appear tough on immigrants.
Amnesty International has criticised the role of the IOM as an "alternative agency for states where they prefer to avoid their human rights obligations", and in May 2003 they released a joint statement with Human Rights Watch, reported in Statewatch Bulletin:"Given that IOM does not have a protection mandate for its work with refugees and displaced persons, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch recommend that IOM should refrain from taking a lead role in situations which fall squarely under the protection mandate of other international organizations, such as UNHCR".
For more info on the IOM, the above report and references, and information on global migration control and resistance, see: http://www.noborder.org/iom/display.php?id=243 and for text of leaflet against IOM, see:http://wiki.makebordershistory.org/index.php/Arguments_Against_IOM
Click here for article from Forced Migration Review - "IOM: Trespassing on others' humanitarian space?"
