Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration

1952 - 1988

BiographyFormed in 1951 as the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME) it changed its name to ICEM in 1951 and took up many of the duties relinquished by the United Nations Specialist Agency, the International Refugee Organisation (IRO). Like the IRO, ICEM's main functions were the identification, registration, classification, care and assistance, legal and political protection and transportation of Europeans desiring to migrate. Unlike the IRO, which dealt predominantly with displaced persons from World War II, ICEM's original mandate was to alleviate surplus population and assist large numbers of unemployed europeans to migrate.

ICEM was open to all governments and Australia played a key role in the conceptualisation of ICEM's constitution. By 1973, over 600,000 new Australians, both migrants and refugees, had received ICEM assistance. In 1973 the Australian government decided that it would go it alone and thus withdrew from ICEM. This decision was reversed in 1977 when Australia applied for observer status and then full membership in 1985.

ICEM changed its name to the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM) in 1988, and to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1989.

Person TypeInstitution