Amy Pope, the new Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, wants to fight mindsets and mentalities that consider deaths in the Mediterranean “normal”. She also spoke on Monday 2 October in Geneva about the need to help countries directly affected by climate change.
Bob, the first woman to head IOM, told reporters at the start of her five-year term: “We need to change the discourse,” and the EU has a role to play.
On Saturday, September 30, the head of X (formerly Twitter), Elon Musk, in a comment targeting support for rescue efforts in the Mediterranean. Bob, who is considered close to US President Joe Biden, responded cautiously: “I will be careful not to get into direct conflict with Elon Musk.”
In recent weeks, large numbers of arrivals from North Africa to southern Europe have pushed some governments to take a tougher stance, with European countries calling for the swift approval of the EU’s migration pact, which provides for reform of the asylum system, but negotiations remain difficult.
Bob is expected to travel to Brussels soon, immediately after her first official trip to East Africa to meet with African Union leaders, in particular, in light of the “very high” number of displaced people in the south. It calls for more “regular” routes for migrants and assistance to the countries from which they depart, in particular by working to address the problems that cause their departure.
Call for cooperation from the private sector
“We’ve had this discussion for years, but the difference is that the top 30 economies are facing labor shortages, and if there were no economic opportunities, they wouldn’t come,” Bob said.
The international official added that AI cannot meet the needs of many companies and that it “will never” completely replace humans. Bob explained that the private sector, with which she wants to partner must also work to improve conditions for migrants. “There needs to be more protection and reduction of exploitation,” she said.
Another reason to consider the benefits of migration, according to the IOM director, is that a “safe”, “legal” and “regular” approach would also help avoid flooding the asylum system with people who are not entitled to it.
The same applied to the north and south of the Americas, where the situation was different from that of recent years, as the categories and numbers of migrant persons had changed.
Proactive anticipation of climate migrants
More broadly, at a time when hundreds of millions of people are exposed to climate change, Bob advocates anticipating the effects of disasters in countries of origin by providing assistance to local communities on the ground. She believes that better use of data would make it possible to anticipate displacements and the assistance that needs to be provided.
Bob acknowledges that data protection mechanisms are not yet sufficient, noting that “more work is needed in this area.”
Bob was elected to head the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in May by IOM member states in place of its Portuguese rival Antonio Vitorino, following a fierce campaign. The White House threw all its weight behind the mandate, which is usually held by a U.S. citizen, angering Europeans, who saw it as an attack by an ally.
