The 94th Session of the IOM governing body opens this morning in
Conference Room XVII at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Following the opening session, Ambassador Juan Antonio March
from Spain will be elected as the new Council Bureau
chairperson.

During the morning, Burundi and Vietnam will be admitted as
IOM's newest member States, bringing IOM's membership to 122. The
Refugee Education Trust (RET), set up in 2000 by former UN High
Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, will join as an observer
along with NGOs Africa Recruit and Femmes Africa
Solidarité.

This year's "International Dialogue on Migration", which opens
this afternoon, will focus on Managing Migration in the Evolving
Economy.

Ikram Seghal, Chairman of the Pathfinder Group and Member of the
Director General's Business Advisory Group, will moderate a round
table bringing together Ali Abdullah Al-Ka'abi, Minister of Labour
of the United Arab Emirates, Arturo Cabrera, Ecuador's Under
Secretary for International Migration Policy at the National
Secretariat for Migration, and Maxime Tandonnet, Advisor on
Immigration and Integration to French President, Nicolas
Sarkozy.

Ali Abdullah Al-Ka'abi will also brief the Council on the
forthcoming regional consultative meeting (Colombo Process) on the
management of overseas employment and contractual labour for Asian
countries of origin in Abu Dhabi in January 2008. It will be the
first time that a destination country will be hosting this
process.

On Wednesday morning, José Magalhães, Portugal's
Deputy Minister of Interior will present the migration priorities
of the Portuguese European Union Presidency.

Representatives attending the Council will also discuss key
issues on the impact of the environment on migration with
panellists including Qiao Zonghuai, Chinese Vice Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Theodoros Skylakakis, Greece's Secretary General
for International Economic Relations and Development Cooperation,
Abdul Bari Khan from Bangladesh's Ministry of Food and Disaster
Management, Nguele Dieudonné Tolo, Director General of
Cameroon's National Forestry Development Agency (NFDA),  Jaifa
Mezher from the Colombian Foreign Ministry and Christophe Bouvier,
Director of the United Nation's Environment Programme for
Europe.

The IOM Council is open to the media. For the Council agenda and
background papers please go to href="http://www.iom.int" target="" title="">www.iom.int.

For further information, please contact:

Jean-Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 285 4366

E-mail: "mailto:pchauzy@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">pchauzy@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">jpandya@iom.int