Team

The IOM Country Office for Austria consists of the following areas:

Head of Office / Programme and Policy Support 
The Head of Office represents IOM in Austria and is responsible for the office activities. The Programme and Policy Support Unit coordinates liaison as well as outreach and advocacy efforts and project implementation in and outside of Austria, and supports the day-to-day management of the office.

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration
Supporting the voluntary return of migrants to their countries of origin is one of IOM's core activities. In order to offer returnees better perspectives following their return, IOM implements additional measures to facilitate the migrants' reintegration into their home societies and economies. IOM Austria implements projects on assisted voluntary return and reintegration, develops quality standards, fosters information exchange and dialogue among the various actors and supports research in this area.

Counter-Trafficking
IOM assists in building the capacities of Austrian stakeholders to identify potential trafficked persons and conducts awareness raising activities on human trafficking for the general public. IOM furthermore contributes to policymaking, including the National Action Plan against Human Trafficking, through a variety of channels. Direct support is available in the form of airport assistance and, when possible, an in-kind reintegration grant for trafficked persons who wish to return to their countries of origin.

Integration
IOM supports approaches and strategies aiming at enhancing migrants' social, economic and cultural inclusion, provided these actions are within the legal framework of the host countries. IOM focuses on developing measures for supporting migrants' integration and strengthening the awareness of positive migration effects in host societies. This reciprocal and mutually reinforcing process is essential for diverse societies.

Operations
Based on requests from NGOs and Austrian authorities, IOM organizes the Voluntary Return of persons whose asylum application has been rejected, who have no residence status in Austria, who are recognized refugees, or who have applied for asylum in Austria and would like to withdraw their application. In addition, the Operations Unit provides departure, transit and arrival assistance at the Vienna airport to migrants flying under the auspices of IOM.

Policy Research and Migration Law
Currently, the main project of the Policy Research and Migration Law Unit is the Austrian National Contact Point within the European Migration Network (EMN), which has been located at IOM Austria since 2003. It is the aim of the EMN to provide European and national institutions as well as the general public with up-to-date, objective and comparable data and information about migration and asylum. To meet this aim, the EMN produces studies and reports on a regular basis and organizes conferences and workshops on different migration and asylum issues.

Resource Management Unit
The Resource Management Unit provides administrative support to all units at the IOM Country Office for Austria including Human Resources.

Banner picture copyright: Nick Mangafas