Amy Pope is elected as the new IOM Director General

May 15. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The member states of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) have elected Amy Pope on Monday as the organization’s new director general, thus replacing António Vitorino, who had been running for re-election.

The body, established in 1951 within the UN system, has stressed that Pope was nominated by the United States. Until now, the new IOM Director General held the position of Assistant Director General for Management and Reform.

Pope, who will thus become the first woman to head IOM, will take up her duties on October 1, 2023 for a five-year term. She had previously been an Immigration Advisor to the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

For his part, Vitorino has held the position since he took office on October 1, 2018, after having been Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs of the European Union (EU) between 1999 and 2004, in addition to having held the posts of Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Portugal.