Short answers, pulled from the story.
The International Organization for Migration was founded in 1951 in response to the large number of displaced persons and war refugees in Europe after the Second World War. It began as a logistics agency organizing transport for nearly one million migrants during the 1950s.
IOM is headquartered in Geneva, with liaison offices in New York City and Addis Ababa. The Global Migration Data Analysis Centre is based in Berlin.
Amy Pope of the United States is the current Director General of IOM. She is supported by Deputy Directors General Ugochi Daniels of Nigeria and SungAh Lee of the Republic of Korea.
As of 2026, IOM has 174 member states and 8 observer states. The highest decision-making body is the council, in which all member states are represented.
IOM's budget in 2024 was around 3.7 billion US dollars. It is made up of voluntary contributions from member states and donations rather than guaranteed assessed contributions.
In 2003, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticized IOM for operating offshore detention centres in Manus and Nauru as part of Australia's "Pacific Solution," arguing IOM lacked a refugee protection mandate and that the facilities amounted to arbitrary detention. In 2022, researchers described IOM's community housing in Indonesia as providing a "humanitarian veneer while carrying out rights-violating activities on behalf of Western nations."