IOM Chief Hails Rwanda’s Model Approach to Migrant Protection and Integration
Rwanda has been commended for adopting a progressive and inclusive approach to supporting migrants, with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) calling on other countries to learn from the country’s experience.
IOM Director General Amy Pope is in Rwanda on a working visit, during which she is assessing the country’s approach to migration management and its efforts to ensure that migrants are treated with dignity and supported to become part of the communities in which they live.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Rwanda Broadcasting Agency (RBA), Pope praised Rwanda’s approach to addressing the challenges faced by migrants, emphasizing the importance of creating conditions that allow them to live safely, work and integrate into society.
She said effective migration management should go beyond simply providing emergency assistance, arguing that migrants need opportunities that enable them to rebuild their lives and contribute to the communities where they settle.
“The best way to address this issue is to help people find jobs, find places to live, so that they can increasingly feel part of the wider community they have joined in the country they migrated to,” Pope said.
She further stressed the importance of ensuring that migrants have proper identification documents, warning that people without legal documentation can be pushed into vulnerable situations where they are forced to live in hiding or remain effectively without a recognized national identity.
According to Pope, providing migrants with access to employment, housing and legal documentation is essential to creating safer and more inclusive societies.
She described Rwanda’s approach as a model that other countries should consider adopting, particularly at a time when migration continues to pose complex social, economic and humanitarian challenges across the world.
“They should have identification documents so that they are not people without a country or people living in hiding. This, therefore, is a good approach that all countries should emulate,” she said.
Pope’s remarks highlight the growing importance of policies that place human dignity and social inclusion at the centre of migration management.
Rwanda’s approach reflects the principle that migrants should not merely be viewed as people in need of assistance, but as members of society who can participate in economic and social development when given the right opportunities and legal protection.
Her visit also comes as countries across Africa and beyond continue to search for sustainable solutions to migration, including how to protect vulnerable migrants while promoting their integration and contribution to host communities.
By emphasizing employment, housing and legal identity, the IOM chief’s message underscores a broader shift toward migration policies that seek long-term solutions rather than temporary responses.
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