Migrant Assistance Division (MAD) is now the Migrant Protection and Assistance Division (MPA)

Geneva – The Migrant Assistance Division (MAD) has been renamed the Migrant Protection and Assistance Division (MPA). This change was announced on Friday 23 March 2018.

Explicitly including “protection” in the Division’s name aims to highlight the importance of protection in its work and better position IOM as a global leader in migrant protection and assistance within the Department of Migration Management’s (DMM) scope of work.

The change is the result of recent trends, whereby the Division at Headquarters and MPA colleagues in the field are increasingly called upon to provide technical and policy guidance on migrant protection matters at the policy and operational levels. The renaming is particularly timely given the current discussions on migrant vulnerability, protection and assistance within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the Global Compact for Migration, and the IOM-EU Migrant Protection and Reintegration Programmes. There is also renewed global attention to combatting human trafficking and smuggling of migrants, as well as efforts aimed at ensuring that victims of trafficking and smuggled migrants receive the protection and assistance to which they are entitled as per the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols.

The transition can also assist IOM in emphasizing to external actors that IOM is indeed balanced in its approach to safe, orderly and regular migration. The name emphasizes the organization’s commitment to the protection of migrants and the human rights-based approach to our interventions.

Does this mean we are changing what we do?

The Division is continuously increasing its role in providing technical and policy guidance on protection and direct assistance, while expanding its partnerships and programming in these two areas.

"This change reflects the protection and assistance work that is, and has always been, a core function of IOM,” said Renate Held, DMM Director. “We are and have been for many years providing extensive protection, assistance and case management services to the most vulnerable migrants, such as unaccompanied and separated migrant children and victims of violence, abuse, and exploitation, including victims of trafficking.”

Even where our work focuses more on the assistance aspect of MPA, in particular in the area of Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programming, the protection of migrants’ rights remains a priority, as underlined by the Director of DMM: “IOM’s protection work is also reflected in the promotion of migrants’ rights in the return process, particularly for those in vulnerable situations and for stranded migrants, and in the provision of reintegration measures aimed at enhancing the well-being of individual migrants and their communities."

In practice, IOM at Headquarters and the field will continue to work to protect and assist migrants, advocate and build Member States’, civil society’s and the private sector’s capacity to do so as tirelessly as we have always done.

What does protection actually mean?

In line with international legislation and IOM’s approach, the Division uses the term “protection” to describe all actions taken to maintain the safety and wellbeing of individuals in accordance with the relevant bodies of law, including legal, physical and social protection measures.

This conceptualization of “protection” is consistent with the international community’s use and application of the term at the policy and operational levels. It also does not limit protection to international protection within the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Learn more about MPA and our current work at the upcoming webinar on 6 June 2018.

For more information please contact: Anh Nguyen, Head of MPA Division at anguyen@iom.int