Over 6,000 staff hit by US funding cuts: IOM

GENEVA: The UN migration agency said Tuesday it was seeking to adjust to “unavoidable financial realities” following dramatic US aid funding cuts, affecting more than 6,000 of its staff worldwide.

Like many humanitarian agencies, the International Organization for Migration has been reeling since US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid funding. The IOM said it was facing “an unprecedented 30-percent reduction in estimated donor funding for the year, including a major decrease in US-funded projects worldwide”.

The IOM, which until now had counted on the United States to cover more than 40 percent of its budget, warned the dramatic cuts were having “severe impacts on vulnerable migrant communities, exacerbating humanitarian crises and undermining vital support systems for displaced populations”.

“Further, this adjustment includes scaling back or ending projects affecting over 6,000 staff members worldwide and implementing a structural realignment at headquarters,” it said in a statement. The measures, the agency said, “aim to ensure that IOM can continue delivering lifesaving humanitarian assistance to migrants and vulnerable communities worldwide”.

Accounting for around half of the affected staff were 3,000 people who were laid off last month, after Trump halted the US refugee resettlement programme they had been working with.

More than 250 of the over 1,000 staff at the agency´s Geneva headquarters were also being let go, IOM said. The agency did not provide a breakdown of how the remaining staff were being affected, but sources with insight into the matter suggested it would be a mix of layoffs, early retirements and non-replacement of staff who leave.

The IOM explained the large number of staff affected was down to its “project-based funding model”, as it relies almost entirely on voluntary funding which is earmarked for specific projects.

“When funding for specific projects ends, the impacts can be far-reaching,” it said. The IOM said its priority was to ensure it could keep up its activities supporting vulnerable populations worldwide “despite the constrained funding environment”.

To reduce spending, the agency said it was “moving positions into lower cost regional offices and country missions, streamlining staffing, and identifying opportunities to better coordinate our work with other humanitarian actors”. The agency recognised “the necessary impact these decisions will have on colleagues who have dedicated years to IOM´s mission, many of whom will lose their jobs”.