Paramaribo, 20 April – Persons fleeing economic and social hardship in Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti, others arriving in the Americas from Asia, the Middle East and Africa, are among the growing challenges faced by small nations across the Caribbean, including continental states like Suriname.

For that reason, the United Nations’ migration agency—the International Organization for Migration, or IOM—this week is stepping up its activity here by sharing expertise in migration management with local officials and other stakeholders.

For three days IOM specialists conducted a new round of training in IOM’s Essentials of Migration Management course with officials representing nearly a dozen Surinamese ministries and other government agencies.

This is IOM’s second visit to Suriname to offer the course, known to its developers as EMM2.0, which emphasizes a whole-of-government approach and encourages interaction on migration matters across many public concerns including law enforcement, health, child protection, human rights, labor rights and the environment.

EMM2.0 is IOM’s flagship training programme which provides foundational training to government officials and all stakeholders dealing with migration and was offered here at the request of the Government of Suriname in support of its ongoing development of its migration policy.

A total of 25 officials from 11 government ministries received certificates upon the completion of the training. Participating ministries included the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Business and International Cooperation; Ministry of Home Affairs; Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Directorate of National Security. Other attendees included the United Nations Resident Coordinator’s Office and Interpol, whose representatives contributed to the workshops’ discourse.

IOM National Project Coordinator, Astrid Pavion, who directed the three-day training, explained: “Suriname’s migration challenges include not only management of undocumented arrivals from varied backgrounds but also the challenges of seeing so many of its own citizens leaving for opportunities abroad.”

“The relationship between the Government of Suriname and IOM has become even more productive”, Pavion said, “and it allows IOM to provide additional support to the government in its management of migration.”

Support for this week’s training was implemented by IOM through the Western Hemisphere project, that is funded by the United States Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM).

“The U.S. promotes safe, orderly, and humane migration through bilateral and multilateral diplomacy and targeted capacity-building programs,” said Catherine Griffith, the Chief of the US Embassy’s Political Economic office in Suriname. “We support regular labor migration pathways that promote decent work and access to formal labor markets and ensure migrant worker protections throughout the recruitment and employment process. We want to see predictability in the process of getting business, residency, and labor documents, which permit migrants to work, study, and contribute to society.”

For more information on IOM and its work in Suriname, contact Astrid Pavion at apavion@iom.int