THE DIFFRENCES, THE SIMILARITIES AND THE COOPEATIONS OF IOM AND UNHCR

by Selvanur Demircan & Sevda Özbay

 

THE DIFFRENCES, THE SIMILARITIES AND THE COOPEATIONS 

OF IOM AND UNHCR

Introduction

How two different international organizations relate to each other? The starting point of this paper is this question. To find a satisfying answer to the question we chose two similar organizations. These organizations are IOM and UNHCR due to the growing importance of migration across the world. First, we will introduce the organizations then We will discuss the differences, the similarities, and the cooperation of IOM and UNHCR. In this way, we will reveal why and how they are related.

International Organization for Migration

International Organization for Migration, one of the leading organizations approaching the issue of migration from different dimensions, is an international organization that addresses all migration problems and can take a holistic view of the issue (Adıgüzel, 2019).

IOM, born as the Intergovernmental Committee of the Movement of Temporary Immigrants from Europe (PICMME) in 1951 after the great wave of immigration caused by the Second World War. The organization made several name changes in the following years: PICMME to the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) in 1952, to the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM) in 1980 to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1989 (IOM History, 2021).

Today, IOM's annual operating budget of an estimated $1.5 billion and has more than 10,000 staff working in over 150 countries around the world. IOM currently has 173 Member States and a further 8 states holding Observer status (IOM History, 2021).

IOM’s mission described as follow in its web site: IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, including refugees and internally displaced people (IOM History, 2021).

The first IOM office in Turkey opened in 1991, after the first Gulf War. Turkey, participated the Organization's works as an observer for a long time, became IOM's member state in 2004 (Adıgüzel, 2019). In addition to the headquarters in Ankara, IOM has approximately 1,000 employees across the country in the sub-offices in Istanbul, Gaziantep, Hatay, Sanliurfa and Izmir (IOM Turkiye Hakkinda, 2021). Especially the offices in the southeast were opened after 2013 due to the Syrian Crisis. Due to this crisis, IOM capacity grew rapidly during this period (Hamit, 2020).

1.      UNHCR

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in1950 after Second World War. It is subsidiary organ under United Nations Security Council. The organization was created in order to help war weary who had fled or lost their homes. UNHCR is still working for protecting and assisting refugees in worldwide today. [1]

UNHCR works in five main fields.[2] The first one is advocacy that provides to converts policies and services that affect displaced and stateless people on regional and worldwide. UNHCR aims to make policies, practices and laws in line with international standards in both countries of asylum and countries of origin. Advocacy is used as a toll to influence governments, non-governmental partners and the public at large to ensure protect displaced people.[3] The second one is aid. UNHCR aims to provide save the rights and well-being who have been forced to flee. It cooperates with partners and to procure that everybody has the right to seek asylum and find safe refugee in alternative country. UNHCR helps refugees, returnees, stateless people, the internally displaced and asylum-seekers.[4] The third is resolution. UNHCR ultimately aims to find solutions that allow refugees to rebuild their lives. These solutions provide that refugees lives with dignity and peace. There are three stages that voluntary repatriation, resettlement and integration.[5] The fourth one is emergency interventions. UNHCR intervenes emergency situations like sudden internal conflicts, wars and natural disasters. It sends aid materials and expert teams to places urgent assistance needed.[6] The last one is protection. Normally governments promise the main human rights and physical safeness of their citizens. However, refugees do not have safety in life. They have no protection from their own state, and they can face persecution. And if the countries that they have fled, do not provide their basic rights and security, their lives are in danger. UNHCR seek to protect the basic human rights of uprooted or stateless people in their countries of asylum. In long term, UNHCR find solutions to repatriating voluntarily to their homeland and integrating in countries of asylum or resettling in third countries.[7] 

1.      Similarities, Differences and Cooperation between UNHCR and IOM

1.1  Similarities

 UNHCR and IOM were established in order to help millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes in 1950-51 after World War II.  Their headquarters are in Geneva. There are representatives of both organizations in Turkey.

Both of them are interested in refugees, migrants, asylum-seekers and rejected asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced people, and local populations in the country of origin, especially those in conflict or post-conflict situations or affected by the presence of internally displaced persons or returnees; or in the country of asylum, affected by the presence of refugees.[8] Since 2003, they are members of Global Migration Group that is an inter-agency group bringing together heads of agencies to promote the wider application of all relevant international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration.[9]

1.2  Differences

UNHCR was established as a subsidiary organ under a larger organization UN Security Council; IOM was established as an unaccompanied (independent) organization. While UNHCR is a subsidiary organ of UN from beginning, IOM was established outside UN system.[10]

One of basic differences between UNHCR and IOM is existence a protection mandate. While UNHCR has a protection, mandate based on Refugee Convention, IOM has no protection mandate. The refugee convention gives authority to UNHCR to protect refugees’ rights and also advocate for a better respect of the rights of refugees.[11] The another difference between UNHCR and IOM is degree of autonomy. UNHCR can request more independent standing against the Western countries thanks to virtue of its mandate and on the basis of a funding system that relies to some scope on the usual contributions of UN member states. However, IOM has more less independency due to its fundementally project-driven funding system. Because it is claim that this situation makes dependent on its donors.[12] IOM is entailed with all forms of migrants (forced migrations, economic migrations and even trapped population). UNHCR focuses on forced migrants specifically people seeking the refugee status owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or belonging to a social group.

1.3  Cooperation

International organizations care about acting together to achieve greater benefits. In 2003, the Global Migration Group, of which UNHCR and IOM are members, was established to create cooperation between 15 international organizations working on similar issues. The group meets every year in Geneva. IOM became a part of United Nations system, as a related organization with an agreement signed between the UN and IOM on 8 July 2016. In May 2018, the Secretary-General committed to establish a UN Network on Migration to ensure effective, timely and coordinated system. IOM had been designated the Coordinator of the Network.[13]

IOM and UNHCR cooperate about warning, monitoring, and prevention of situations leading to displacement. Both organizations contribute to UN Nations emergency planning like possible refugee influxes. IOM and UNHCR works capacity building to improve the ability of Governments to respond to crises. Another cooperation field is about internally displaced persons (IDPs) between these two organizations. UNHCR and IOM work together in the field of "in-country processing for organized departure". IOM assists persons who migrate and facing persecution because of lack of protection, UNHCR participates that such cooperation. UNHCR and IOM provide a mechanism that rejected asylum-seekers benefit it. And lastly, UNHCR and IOM act together about voluntary repatriation of refugees, reintegration and resettlement.[14]

Conclusion: Together or Apart?

Increasing immigration mobility after World War II led to the establishment of these institutions. Since then, the mobility has continued to increase, especially after the Syrian crisis, which we started to see its effects in 2012, the immigration mobility, which increased greatly revealed that these institutions should work much more closely together. Thus, IOM became a part of United Nations system, as a related organization with an agreement signed between the UN and IOM on 8 July 2016 (IOM Becomes a Related Organization to the UN, 2016). With the agreement, for the first time since its establishment, the United Nations has a "UN Immigration Office". The agreement was generally welcomed at this point.

“We are gathered here today for an historic Summit—the first ever to assemble Heads of State from around the world to address the question of refugees and migrants,” said IOM Director General William L. Swing  during The United Nations Summit on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants (19.09.2016, New York) He added that the challenge of addressing large movements of refugees and migrants was not insurmountable, if the international community shared responsibility (www.iom.int, 2016).

One of the prominent views on this issue is that welcomes this merger, with its criticism that IOM's projects reflect the interests of individual member states, not based on consensus. It is due to the belief that after unification, human rights principles will be given more importance than the individual interests of the countries (Siegfried, 2016).

On the other hand, there are criticisms to see this merger insufficient and to take more important steps due to the increasing importance of migration issue globally (Micinski & Weiss, 2016).

 

REFERENCESS

Adıgüzel, Yusuf. Göç Sosyolojisi. 3. Nobel, 2019.

Hamit, M. (2020, 12 18). Göç Söyleşileri - Uluslararası Göç Örgütü ve Türkiye'deki Görevleri - Meltem Hamit. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRSJYevQJkw&t=2121s adresinden alındı

IOM Becomes a Related Organization to the UN. (2016, 25 7). iom.int: https://www.iom.int/news/iom-becomes-related-organization-un adresinden alındı

IOM History. (2021). iom.int: https://www.iom.int/iom-history adresinden alındı

IOM Turkiye Hakkinda. (2021). turkey.iom.int: https://turkey.iom.int/tr/iom-turkiye-hakkinda adresinden alındı

Micinski, N. R., & Weiss, T. G. (2016, 9). International Organization For Migration and the UN System: A Missed Opportunity. Future United Nations Development System.

Siegfried, K. (2016, 8 12). How will joining the UN change IOM? The New Humanitarian.

www.iom.int. (2016, 19 09). Summit on Refugees and Migrants Begins as IOM Joins the United Nations. iom.int: https://www.iom.int/news/summit-refugees-and-migrants-begins-iom-joins-united-nations adresinden alındı

UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. “Advocacy,” n.d. https://www.unhcr.org/advocacy.html.

IOM UN Migration. “Global Migration Group.” Accessed January 30, 2021. https://www.iom.int/global-migration-group.

Global Migration Group. “Global Migration Group/ About,” n.d. https://globalmigrationgroup.org/what-is-the-gmg.

UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. “History of UNHCR,” n.d. https://www.unhcr.org/history-of-unhcr.html.

IOM UN Migration. “IOM Becomes a Related Organizaiton to the UN.” Accessed January 31, 2021. https://www.iom.int/news/iom-becomes-related-organization-un.

“Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.” UN High Comissioner for Refugees, May 15, 1997. https://www.unhcr.org/4aa7a3ed9.pdf.

Moretti, Sebastien. “Between Refugee Protection and Migration Management: The Quest for Coordination between UNHCR and IOM in the Asia-Pacific Region.” Third World Quarterly 42, no. 1 (January 2, 2021): 34–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1780910.

UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. “Protection,” n.d. https://www.unhcr.org/protection.html.

UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. “Solutions,” n.d. https://www.unhcr.org/solutions.html.

UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency. “Who We Help,” n.d. https://www.unhcr.org/who-we-help.html.

                                                                                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] “History of UNHCR,” UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, n.d., https://www.unhcr.org/history-of-unhcr.html.

[2] Yusuf Adıgüzel, Göç Sosyolojisi, 3. (Nobel, 2019), 206.

[3] “Advocacy,” UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, n.d., https://www.unhcr.org/advocacy.html.

[4] “Who We Help,” UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, n.d., https://www.unhcr.org/who-we-help.html.

[5] “Solutions,” UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, n.d., https://www.unhcr.org/solutions.html.

[6] Adıgüzel, Göç Sosyolojisi, 207.

[7] “Protection,” UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, n.d., https://www.unhcr.org/protection.html.

[8] “Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration” (UN High Comissioner for Refugees, May 15, 1997), https://www.unhcr.org/4aa7a3ed9.pdf.

[9] “Global Migration Group/ About,” Global Migration Group, n.d., https://globalmigrationgroup.org/what-is-the-gmg; “Global Migration Group,” IOM UN Migration, accessed January 30, 2021, https://www.iom.int/global-migration-group.

[10] Sebastien Moretti, “Between Refugee Protection and Migration Management: The Quest for Coordination between UNHCR and IOM in the Asia-Pacific Region,” Third World Quarterly 42, no. 1 (January 2, 2021): 34–51, https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2020.1780910.

[11] Moretti.

[12] Moretti.

[13] “IOM Becomes a Related Organizaiton to the UN,” IOM UN Migration, accessed January 31, 2021, https://www.iom.int/news/iom-becomes-related-organization-un.

[14] “Memorandum of Understanding between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration.”