
Director General Ant nio Vitorino
In a statement on Tuesday, the IOM said it welcomes Vitorino’s appointment of Othman Belbeisi.
Vitorino said that Belbeisi “brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise on issues related to migration to the role of regional director."
“I have every confidence in his strong leadership, solid guidance and impact for the MENA region,” the director general said.
Prior to this appointment, Belbeisi, a Jordanian national, served as the Senior Regional Adviser (SRA) for the Middle East and North Africa as part of the Executive Office in IOM Headquarters.
He has been with IOM since 2003 and has previously served as the Chief of Mission in Libya and Lebanon, and carried out multiple senior leadership tasks across the region.
During his two-decade-long career with IOM, Belbeisi has been deployed to various MENA countries on numerous assignments.
He served as emergency coordinator for the Syrian and the Libyan crises, and since 2022, he served as the organisation’s special envoy for Iraq.
“I am delighted to resume my role as regional director for the MENA, a region I worked in for years and have a great passion for. It is a dynamic region whose history is shaped by migration,” said Belbeisi.
“Building on existing achievements, my priorities will focus on strengthening partnerships with governments and regional organisations, improving migration data, supporting the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in the region, and contributing to the achievements of the Sustainable Development Goals through well-developed migration strategies,” Belbeisi added.
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