Funafuti – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has opened a Country Office for Tuvalu, its tenth in the Pacific region, after signing a Cooperation Agreement with the Government of Tuvalu.  

Tuvalu’s Minister of Justice, Communication and Foreign Affairs, Panapasi Nelesone and Jacqueline Weekers, IOM’s Chief of Mission for Australia and Coordinator for the Pacific and New Zealand, signed the agreement on 1 September at the Government Building in the capital city, Funafuti.  

Minister Nelesone stated that “the Cabinet endorsed the cooperation agreement signaling the Government's interest in working closely with IOM to support government migration priorities”. 

The Minister pointed out that the Government of Tuvalu would like to ensure that Tuvaluans who choose to migrate overseas “migrate with dignity”. The same sentiment was also expressed by Tuvalu’s Prime Minister Kausea Natano during his bilateral meeting with Weekers.  

“The newly established office in Tuvalu is working along the strategic pillars of IOM in the Pacific: climate change and disaster-related human mobility; labour mobility; and governance for border management and migrant protection in close collaboration with UN partners, donors and the PIF countries,”  Weekers said.  

Minister Nelesone welcomed and thanked Weekers for visiting Tuvalu and acknowledged IOM’s commitment and determination to support Tuvalu specifically in areas of migration, labour mobility, border management, and climate change. The Minister reiterated that the Government of Tuvalu is looking forward to working closely with IOM. 

“Under the new leadership of the IOM Director General Elect, Amy Pope, IOM will prioritize its work in the domain of human mobility and climate change and support the countries of the Pacific”, said Weekers. Furthermore “The Government of Tuvalu will have the opportunity to present on climate change and human mobility concerns at the IOM Council later this year.”  

Weekers remarked that “IOM is looking forward to increased collaboration and support the Government of Tuvalu and ensure that migration and migrants can form part of the solution, and migrants can be drivers of development for both their communities of origin and destination.” 

IOM is currently implementing a number of programmes in Tuvalu across all 3 pillars of the IOM Pacific Strategy 2022 - 2026. This includes (1) resilience to climate change and disaster-related human mobility, (2) labour mobility and human development, and (3) governance for border management and migrant protection.  

Watch this video for more information on IOM in the Pacific. 

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For more information, please contact Saamu Tui at IOM Tuvalu Country Office at stui@iom.int