The 94th Session of the IOM Council gets underway next week during
which the Organization will admit new members and observers in
addition to looking at issues around labour mobility and migration
and the environment.

Burundi and Vietnam will officially join IOM as new members on
the opening day of the Council which takes place between 27-30
November, bringing IOM's membership to 122 states.

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.

Panellists including Lorena Escudero Durán, Ecuadoran
Secretary of State for Migration, Vayalar Ravi, Minister for
Overseas Indian Affairs, Hatem Ben Salem, Tunisia's Secretary of
State in charge of European Affairs and Maxime Tandonnet, Advisor
on Immigration and Integration to French President, Nicolas
Sarkozy, will lead discussions on labour mobility in an evolving
global economy as part of IOM's International Dialogue on
Migration.

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.

Looking ahead, member states will be briefed by the United Arab
Emirates' Minister for Labour, Ali Abdullah Al-Ka'abi 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.

The IOM Council, which is being held at the United Nations'
Palais des Nations in Geneva, is open to the media.

For the Council agenda and background papers, please go to class="paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.iom.int">www.iom.int.

For further information, please contact:

Jean Philippe Chauzy

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 285 4366

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

or

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 79 217 3374

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