UN Migration Agency Seeks $7.9B to Help 140M People
On Monday. the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it is seeking $7.9B in 2024 to 'save lives and protect people on the move.'
Facts
- On Monday. the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it is seeking $7.9B in 2024 to 'save lives and protect people on the move.'1
- IOM's first global appeal is reportedly aimed at strengthening efforts to support at least 140M people —including migrants and the communities in which they live — as well as reduce the growing scale of displacement.2
- The objective is to raise funds from individuals, private-sector donors, and governments to manage 'irregular and forced migration,' which it claims has reached unprecedented levels.3
- The fundraising goal includes $3.4B dedicated to the immediate life-saving needs of those currently in transit. Another $2.7B set aside will be used to provide solutions to forced displacement, including due to climate change.4
- Previously, the agency had claimed the number of international migrants grew to 281M in 2020 despite COVID-era travel restrictions — 3.6% of the world's population lived outside of their country of birth.5
- Meanwhile, according to IOM's Missing Migrants Project, at least 60K people have died or disappeared during perilous migration journeys — including from North Africa across the Mediterranean to Europe — over the past nine years.6
Sources: 1UN News, 2Al Jazeera, 3Associated Press, 4The Daily Star, 5Pew Research Center and 6The Week.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by National Post. The UN's migration agency must be well-funded to protect millions of displaced people who take dangerous journeys to reach greater freedom yet contribute to global prosperity and progress by generating nearly 10% of the world's economic output. Ignoring migrants' plight comes at a greater cost — not just in terms of money but in more significant danger to the international community through human trafficking and smuggling.
- Narrative B, as provided by Bloomberg. Migrants will keep coming to the US and Europe because they flee en masse from disorder toward more stable locations. A coherent international policy is required to deal with the systemic macroeconomic issues that cause an arc of human misery and uprooting, such as poverty, conflict, and climate change — simply increasing funding to 'fix' the reality will not solve the growing problem and subsequent economic burden of population displacement.
