Antonio Vitorino elected head of UN migration agency

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Europe

The UN's migration agency has elected Portuguese socialist Antonio Vitorino as its new leader after rejecting the Trump administration's proposed candidate to head the body.

In a statement released on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says its next director-general edged out both a top IOM official and US candidate Ken Isaacs.

Vitorino, 61, will become only the second IOM director-general not from the United States since the intergovernmental organization was founded in 1951. He was chosen over Isaacs, who was eliminated in early voting rounds, and by acclimation over the runner-up, Laura Thompson of Costa Rica – currently a deputy director-general of IOM.

Vitorino is a former EU commissioner for Home and Justice Affairs who's been president of the "Notre Europe" think tank for the last seven years.

Gambian migrants deported from Libya stand in line with plastic bags from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as they wait for registration at the airport in Banjul, Gambia, April 4, 2017. /VCG Photo‍

The IOM has over 10,000 staffers in offices in more than 150 countries. Its work has been pivotal in providing humanitarian aid to migrants, and helping track deaths of migrants across often deadly Mediterranean waters between northern Africa. It also helps in resettling migrants accepted by foreign countries – and at times returning them home.

The UN's migration agency has rejected the Trump administration's proposed candidate to head the body, a post previously held mostly by Americans since 1951.

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been an American throughout the agency's 67-year history with one exception from 1961 to 1969.

Source(s): AP