BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

18/09/2008

Belarus-IOM cooperation successfully developing

Belarus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have been successfully developing cooperation that has good prospects, IOM Director General Brunson McKinley stated at a meeting with Foreign Minister of Belarus Sergei Martynov in the Belarusian Foreign Ministry on September 18.

Brunson McKinley has said that he has visited Minsk several times and this visit is the last one before the end of his mission as IOM Director. He praised the level of the cooperation between the organization and Belarus, reported BELTA.

Sergei Martynov lauded Brunson McKinley's considerable contribution to the work of the organization.

Today some 125 countries are the IOM members. Belarus received the status of an observer in the organization in 1994. In 1998 an agreement on cooperation was signed between the Government of the Republic of Belarus and the International Organization for Migration. In 2005 Belarus became a full-fledged member of the organization and the IOM Executive Committee. In November 2007, Belarus was re-elected to the IOM governing body for 2008-2009.

The IOM Office was opened in Minsk in 1996 and required the status of an independent country office in 2007. Last year the first international center for training, retraining and qualifications upgrading of the personnel in the area of migration and combating human trafficking was opened in Minsk under the auspices of the IOM. The center received the status of the CIS basic educational establishment.

The cooperation with the IOM is one of the pivotal areas of the Belarus' foreign policy. At present, two projects $3.7 million worth are being implemented in Belarus: "MIGRABEL: Strengthening of Migration Management in the Republic of Belarus" and "Combating Trafficking in Human Beings: Belarus - Criminalization and Prosecution".

Belarus is actively promoting the expansion of cooperation between the CIS member states and the IOM in the migration processes on the CIS territory.

Source:

http://news.trendaz.com/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1298037&lang=EN

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