On Thursday 20th November from 12 noon – 2pm the International Organization for Migration (IOM) are hosting an information / networking meeting at their offices in Liverpool (The Corn Exchange, Fenwick Street, Liverpool, L2 7QL – Reception on the 5th floor).
They see this as an opportunity to promote the IOM's "voluntary" return programmes for asylum seekers and refugees who are pushed to return to their "home country".
Tell all refugee organisations and asylum seekers what the IOM is really about, or complain at their offices directly (0151 225 0156).
They see this as an opportunity to promote the IOM's "voluntary" return programmes for asylum seekers and refugees who are pushed to return to their "home country".
Tell all refugee organisations and asylum seekers what the IOM is really about, or complain at their offices directly (0151 225 0156).
DON'T SPEAK TO THE IOM !!!
Why? The IOM is a service agency that answers to its 125 or so member states. In the UK, the government drives ‘undesired’ migrants into destitution, disperses them across the country, bans them from taking up a job, locks them up in detention centres, and threatens them with dawn raids and forced deportation. The IOM’s role is to effectively blackmail migrants who have been pushed into poverty or desperation to return ‘voluntarily’ with a little sum of money to the countries they left. If forced removals are so costly and cause a lot of fuss, the logic goes, why not do it another way, while pretending to be compassionate and humane. If detention is the stick, the IOM are the carrot. Both are part of the same system of migration management.
Unsurprisingly, most asylum seekers and immigrants who get sent IOM literature won’t be tricked and it goes straight into the bin. But when immigration authorities withdraw all means of support (financial, accommodation, healthcare etc.) and the right to work, some are left with no alternative but to take up the bribes. The dismantling of the IOM’s ‘voluntary return’ programmes thus has to come hand in hand with the end of deportations, detentions and destitution.
In the pay of state and capital
We oppose the IOM because, in the current border regime, no return can be deemed voluntary. But we deplore the organisation also because it aims to control people in the interest of governments and their economies.
The organisation claims to promote economic development through migration management. This falls into the same category as the governments point-based system for immigration that makes a distinction between economically useful and useless people. Migration is encouraged when it benefits the rich, and it is prohibited migrants are ‘not needed’. We oppose this system that only sees economic value in people and tries to restrict our autonomy to go where we please.
The IOM also promotes a language of nationalism in the interest of states who want to create separate rules for ‘foreigners’ and for ‘the indigenous population’. The language of ‘return’ and ‘repatriation’ sees national identities as fixed and assumes that people always belong in their land and ‘culture’ of origin. This leads to a practice whereby the IOM trains and assists border forces and administers detention centres for unwanted migrants.
Why? The IOM is a service agency that answers to its 125 or so member states. In the UK, the government drives ‘undesired’ migrants into destitution, disperses them across the country, bans them from taking up a job, locks them up in detention centres, and threatens them with dawn raids and forced deportation. The IOM’s role is to effectively blackmail migrants who have been pushed into poverty or desperation to return ‘voluntarily’ with a little sum of money to the countries they left. If forced removals are so costly and cause a lot of fuss, the logic goes, why not do it another way, while pretending to be compassionate and humane. If detention is the stick, the IOM are the carrot. Both are part of the same system of migration management.
Unsurprisingly, most asylum seekers and immigrants who get sent IOM literature won’t be tricked and it goes straight into the bin. But when immigration authorities withdraw all means of support (financial, accommodation, healthcare etc.) and the right to work, some are left with no alternative but to take up the bribes. The dismantling of the IOM’s ‘voluntary return’ programmes thus has to come hand in hand with the end of deportations, detentions and destitution.
In the pay of state and capital
We oppose the IOM because, in the current border regime, no return can be deemed voluntary. But we deplore the organisation also because it aims to control people in the interest of governments and their economies.
The organisation claims to promote economic development through migration management. This falls into the same category as the governments point-based system for immigration that makes a distinction between economically useful and useless people. Migration is encouraged when it benefits the rich, and it is prohibited migrants are ‘not needed’. We oppose this system that only sees economic value in people and tries to restrict our autonomy to go where we please.
The IOM also promotes a language of nationalism in the interest of states who want to create separate rules for ‘foreigners’ and for ‘the indigenous population’. The language of ‘return’ and ‘repatriation’ sees national identities as fixed and assumes that people always belong in their land and ‘culture’ of origin. This leads to a practice whereby the IOM trains and assists border forces and administers detention centres for unwanted migrants.