The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM) will later today
sign an agreement pledging closer cooperation to tackle human
trafficking and migrant smuggling, and to improve border
management, bearing in mind the cross-cutting theme of corruption.

The Memorandum of Understanding will be signed by IOM Director
General William Lacy Swing and by UNODC Executive Director Yury
Fedotov on the margins of the 10th Ministerial Conference of the
Central Asia Border Security Initiative, which is currently taking
place in Vienna.

"The signing of this cooperation agreement confirms IOM's
determination to step up its cooperation with UNODC to further
combat trafficking in persons, migrant smuggling and to ensure
borders are managed in an integrated, modern and humane way," said
IOM Director General Swing.

The agreement seeks to enhance coordination, to further exchange
of information and to extend joint activities between both
agencies. It builds upon joint cooperation with the Global
Migration Group (GMG), the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against
Trafficking in Persons and the United Nations Global Initiative to
Fight Human Trafficking (UNGIFT), among others.

UNODC Executive Director Fedotov said: "According to the
International Labour Organization (ILO), human trafficking
generates USD 32 billion annually, making it a threat of
extraordinary proportions. It will require a coordinated and
meaningful response at all levels: local, regional and
international, if we are to have success against this global
crime."

IOM and UNODC have a long-standing partnership formalized in a
1996 United Nations Cooperation Framework, which is now reaffirmed
by today's agreement with more specific cooperation measures.

UNODC is already working closely with IOM in the area of
trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants in Southern
Africa, West Africa, the Horn of Africa and Colombia.

In addition to cooperation in technical assistance delivery in
the field, IOM has provided expert input to a number of UNODC
technical publications including the International Framework for
Action to Implement the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, and the
International Framework for Action to Implement the Smuggling of
Migrants Protocol.

For more information, please contact:

Laurence Hart

IOM Geneva

Tel: +41 22 717 9444

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

or

Rebecca Wabwoba

UNODC

Tel: +43 1 26060 5348

E-mail: "mailto:rebecca.wabwoba@unodc.org">rebecca.wabwoba@unodc.org