As part of its core mandate, IOM helps governments around the world develop and implement migration policies, legislation and administrative mechanisms both by providing technical assistance and training to government officials, and by helping migrants in need.

 

Irregular migration is major issue of concern in migration management. People smuggling has increased in professionalism over the years as more migrants turn to organized criminal syndicates to realize their dream of a better life. Hundreds pay the ultimate price in pursuit of these aspirations, drowning when overcrowded smugglers’ boats sink on the high seas.

 

Since 1996, migrants primarily fleeing the Middle East and Central Asia,  paid vast sums of money to people smugglers, who organized their passage and obtained fraudulent documents and visas for travel to Australia. In almost all cases, their journey to Australia involved a stopover in Indonesia, where many were left stranded.

 

IOM assists Indonesian and Australian Government efforts to regulate the movement of irregular migrants through Indonesia by providing support services to people intercepted en route by the Indonesian authorities.

 

These services include counseling, medical care, food, shelter, basic skills training and assistance with requests for asylum or voluntary repatriation. Numbers of intercepted irregular migrants vary seasonally, but have reached up to 2,000 people.