Mauritanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mohamed
Saleck Ould Mohamed Lemine, and IOM Director General, Brunson
McKinley, have signed an agreement for the opening of an IOM office
in Nouakchott.

Welcoming the agreement, McKinley said: "Thanks to its dynamic
diplomacy, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania is playing an
increasingly important role in the international cooperation on
migration. We look forward to reinforcing our partnership with the
Mauritanian government to serve both the migration priorities of
the country and the rights of migrants."

Areas of future cooperation include:

• Assisted voluntary return and sustainable reintegration
  programmes for irregular migrants stranded in Mauritania
• Information campaigns on the pitfalls of irregular
  migration
• Technical cooperation on migration management and capacity
  building

In February 2007, a workshop jointly organized by IOM, the
Mauritanian Ministry of Justice, and the cooperation service of the
French police, brought together judges and state prosecutors from
across Mauritania to discuss ways to successfully prosecute human
smugglers through the implementation of the United Nations'
Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocols,
to which Mauritania adhered in 2005.

In recent years and in cooperation with the Mauritanian
government and other partners, IOM has provided humanitarian
assistance to many hundreds of migrants abandoned in the
Mauritanian deserts by human smugglers and left stranded in the
country without food, water, money or papers. Assistance has
included the provision of assisted voluntary return to home
countries including to migrants from South Asia.

The IOM-Mauritania agreement, signed at IOM headquarters,
provides the Organization with the same privileges and immunities
as specified by the 1947 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of
the UN.

Mauritania joined IOM as a member state in June 2003.

For more information, please call:

Redouane Saadi

IOM Geneva

Tel +41 22 717 9321

E-mail: "mailto:rsaadi@iom.int">rsaadi@iom.int