Amy Pope, the newly elected Director-General of International Organization for Migration (IOM), is set to visit Kenya next week.
Ms Pope who was elected in May in Geneva is the first woman to hold the position in IOM’s 72-year history.
She jets into the country on 12 to 14 October 2023, for her inaugural trip as the head of the UN agency.
According to a press release, Ms Pope is scheduled to meet with President William Ruto and other senior government officials to discuss enhancing IOM’s collaboration in promoting safe, regular, and dignified migration, and addressing migration challenges in Kenya, including climate change migration.
Kenya which hosts two of the oldest refugee camps (Kakuma and Dadaab) in Africa is home to an estimated 1.1 million migrants and over 490,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
IOM Kenya has been working with Kenya’s government on managing migration issues for nearly 40 decades.
It runs programmes on Migration Governance, Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion, Migrant Protection and Assistance, Migration, Environment and Climate Change, Emergency Preparedness, Response and Stabilization, Immigration and Border Management, Migration Health, and Resettlement and Movement Management.
According to IOM, migrants come to Kenya for better economic prosperity, higher educational attainment, and better health care.
The country is also a migration source, destination, and transit country for the neighbouring countries, as well as for the Middle East, North Africa, North America, and Europe.
The new DG will address the media on 13 October 2023 at 2 pm.
