Newly-elected Director General for International Organization for Migration (IOM) Amy Pope is next week set for an inaugural visit to Kenya.
Pope who formally assumed office Sunday following the expiry term of António Vitorino will be in the country for a three-day visit beginning October 12.
A statement from the IOM office states that Pope will meet President William Ruto and other senior government officials during the visit.
“During their meetings they will discuss ways of enhancing IOM’s collaboration in promoting safe, regular, and dignified migration, and addressing migration challenges in Kenya, including climate change migration,” reads the statement.
IOM Kenya has been working with the government on managing migration issues for nearly 40 decades now.
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.
Other areas are immigration and border management, migration health, and resettlement and movement management.
Data from the UN agency shows that Kenya is home to an estimated 1.1 million migrants and over 490,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
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 neighboring countries, as well as for the Middle East, North Africa, North America, and Europe.
Additionally, Kenya hosts two of the oldest refugee camps-Kakuma and Dadaab- in Africa.
Climate-induced mobility has forcefully displaced over 465,000 people in the country.
Pope, a former deputy director at the agency, was elected on May 15 to succeed Vitorino who has been at the helm since 2018.
She becomes the first woman to head the body.
Before being appointed to the body, she previously served as a senior advisor on migration to President Joe Biden and also worked as a deputy assistant to the President and Deputy Homeland security advisor from 2015-17.
She has also served as a special assistant to the President and senior director on trans-border security from 2013-15.
IOM with offices in 171 countries across the globe has nearly 19,000 staff working to promote “humane and orderly” migration.
Vitorino visited Kenya in February to launch the 2023 Migrant Response Plan (MRP).
IOM requires a total of Sh10 billion ($84 million) to support over one million migrants from the Horn of Africa is targeted in the initiative.
It says every year more than 250,000 migrants including young men, women and children leave their countries in the Horn of Africa for the Gulf nations in search of better livelihood opportunities.
