South Eastern and Eastern Europe

Since 2015, IOM’s cooperation with the EU in South Eastern Europe has been marked by mixed migration flows through the Western Balkans and Turkey.

We are engaged in partnerships with EU agencies and other international organisations to support protection-sensitive migration management, border management, reception capacities, migrant protection and assistance and community stabilisation. IOM is implementing 16 EU-funded projects in the Western Balkans and Turkey in 2022.

In Eastern Europe, migration management and migrant protection and assistance are traditional areas of our cooperation with the EU. IOM has also provided technical support to the Eastern Partnership Panel on Migration and Asylum since its establishment in 2012. IOM is currently managing 10 EU-funded projects in 2022, targeting primarily Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova.

Our regional priorities to bolster engagement with the EU include migrant integration, labour migration, migration and development as well as countering and prevention of violent extremism.