U.S. Makes First Contribution to Emergency Migration Fund

06 March 2012

Evacuees wait for a ship provided by the International Organization for Migration that will take them away from the crisis in Libya in August 2011.

The United States has contributed $2.5 million to the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) new Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM). 

Recent major emergencies such as the evacuations from Libya, Côte d’Ivoire and Yemen — where IOM played an essential life-saving role — have highlighted the importance of rapid response and intervention, according to a press release from the U.S. mission in Geneva. The contribution by the United States is the first for the new emergency fund.

“These funds will help IOM to save lives and mitigate suffering by allowing it to respond rapidly in the critical, early stages of an emergency,” said Ambassador Betty E. King, U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva. “The United States supported the creation of the MEFM and is convinced that this new mechanism is an important contribution to the system of humanitarian response. Migration crises can develop literally overnight, and in the past IOM had no option but to await financial commitments by donors. We all witnessed the essential role IOM played in Libya last year, when it helped evacuate over 230,000 people, by land and air from Sebha and by boat from Misrata."

The new emergency fund was established to bridge the gap between when an emergency occurs and when donor funding is received. The aim is to enable earlier assessment of situations and cut the time needed to provide the initial assistance.

"As the first contribution to this new migrant emergency funding facility, the U.S. voluntary contribution is particularly timely,” said IOM Director General William Swing. "We hope that this initiative will serve as an encouragement to us all to bring the facility to full capacity."