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Aid and influence

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 Surge in Global Migration Expands Scale of an Aid Group?s Influence

Words By Jason DeParle
Photographs by Shahidul Alam
Published: New York Times August 30, 2011

DHAKA, Bangladesh ? As global migration has rapidly expanded, so has the influence of a little-known group whose eclectic work shapes migrants? lives across six continents.


Mohammad Shofiqul Islam is 35 years old. He sold his pharmacy in Khulna (and borrowed money from relatives ) to pay a recruiter (dalal) $5,000 for a job working in a Chinese restaurant in Libya. When he got there, he had an invalid visa and no job. He is one of about 34,000 Bangladehis whom IOM helped bring home from the war. was caught in the war for 15 days, and only reluctantly agreed to come home. He didn?t want to come back because he has no job at home and owes big debts. He paid about $80 to a Libyan driver to take him to the Tunisa border, where IOM had set up a tents for fleeing workers. ``My father, my wife, tney are all calling me, telling me you must come back to Bangladesh?I thought if we go to Tunisia, we live. If I stay in Libya, I die.?? Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World for The New York Times




Shofiqul Islam, a worker whom the International Organization for Migration helped to leave Libya and return to his Bangladesh home after two years. "I'm very grateful," he said. Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World for The New York Times

Here in Bangladesh it has staged folk dramas to warn against sex trafficking, put solar panels on a remote border post and rescued tens of thousands of Bangladeshi workers caught in the Libyan war, at times with daring sea ventures that defied rocket attacks.

Part research group, part handyman crew, the International Organization for Migration has become the who-you-gonna-call outfit for 132 member countries grappling with the surge in migration, both legal and unauthorized. Its rapid growth is a sign that migration has outgrown most countries? ability to manage on their own. ?I haven?t made it to a country yet where migration hasn?t been high on the list of priorities,? said William L. Swing, the director general.
Yet even as its duties grow, the group operates under tight constraints that reflect the special worries migration can arouse. The United States and other rich donors largely dictate its agenda and ensure that it does not erode their power to decide which migrants they admit and how many.
?It helps them bring in the people they want and keep out the people they don?t,? said Joseph Chamie, a researcher at the Center for Migration Studies in New York.


Prospective Bangladeshi workers on pre-departure orientation course preparing them for the challenges of living abroad. The course is run by the Bangladeshi government and supported by IOM. Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World for The New York Times




Prospective Bangladeshi workers on pre-departure orientation course preparing them for the challenges of living abroad. The course is run by the Bangladeshi government and supported by IOM. Shahidul Alam/Drik/Majority World for The New York Times


To understand the group?s rapid growth and varied duties, consider Bangladesh, where the $10 billion that migrants send home accounts for 13 percent of the economy ? making the export of people nearly as vital as the export of shirts. But migrants borrow heavily to finance their trips, and the labor recruiting industry is rife with scams.
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