IOM Director General Brunson McKinley and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Executive Secretary Sergei Lebedev will today sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) pledging closer cooperation between the two organizations.

The signing in Minsk, Belarus, is expected to be attended by the Permanent Representatives of CIS Member States including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and will be followed by a press conference.

The agreement between IOM and the CIS marks a growing recognition of the need to address migration management in the CIS participating states, particularly with a view to countering irregular migration and trafficking in human beings.

The Russian Federation, which is the main country of destination in the CIS, now hosts an estimated 12 million migrants, followed by Ukraine with 6.8 million and Kazakhstan with 2.5 million. Belarus, which hosts the CIS Secretariat, is home to an estimated 1.2 million migrants.

"This agreement recognizes the growing importance of regional cooperation in managing migration and will reinforce the excellent working relationship that IOM already has with individual CIS states. We believe that it will open the door to a range of new joint programmes and activities within the CIS framework," said Director General McKinley.

The MoU calls for regular information exchange and technical cooperation, including joint workshops to address areas including irregular migration, trafficking in human beings, cross-border cooperation and improved travel documentation, including the use of biometrics, as well as other migration management issues.

For more information please contact:

Galina Desyatova
IOM Minsk
Tel. +375.172882742
E-mail: gdesyatova@iom.org.by