Dushanbe – June 12, 2024
ECO Secretary General, Ambassador Khusrav Noziri, met with Mr. Zeynal Hajiyev, IOM Sub-Regional Coordinator for Central Asia, during the 3rd International High-Level Conference on the International Decade for Action “Water for Sustainable Development” 2018-2028 held in Dushanbe.
During conversation, Ambassador Noziri emphasized the significance of migration in the world, noting that the ECO region is both a popular transit route and destination for migrants. He informed IOM about the upcoming joint ECO-IOM workshop on “Trafficking in Persons and Migrant Smuggling in the ECO Region,” scheduled for July 29-30, 2024, in Tehran, and expressed gratitude for IOM’s collaborative approach. Referencing the 2009 MoU between IOM and ECO, Ambassador Noziri expressed the organization’s readiness to strengthen collaboration on migration issues.
Mr. Hajiyev highlighted the Almaty Process, a dialogue program initiated by Kazakhstan in 2013 to explore the root causes of migration. He expressed IOM’s readiness for increased engagement with ECO on migration and related issues such as human mobility, climate change and the displacement of women and youth.
