Mongolia joined IOM as a member state in 2008 and opened an office in Ulaanbaatar in 2011. Since then, the mission has worked to address the full scope of migration issues, supporting and developing government capacity to manage migration.

IOM’s activities in Mongolia began with introducing international standards to deliver direct services to victims of trafficking, to support the Government of Mongolia’s effort to combat human-trafficking and Mongolian nationals in return from foreign countries. Today, IOM’s operations have expanded to include strengthening the management of internal migration, enhancing immigration and border management, providing support in situations of emergency and crisis, and assisting migrants with visa processing.

Key Migration Trends in Mongolia

International migration has grown exponentially, with approximately 200,000 Mongolian migrants currently living abroad (mostly in countries in Asia, Europe, and the United States) in search of higher paid jobs and a better quality of life for themselves and their families. The Mongolian diaspora has become economically and socially significant. In 2020, Mongolians abroad sent back USD536.2 million in remittances, which equaled 4.07 percent of the country’s GDP, informal channels excluded (World Bank, 2020).

Due to development discrepancies between rural areas and the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has experienced a dramatic rural-to-urban migration flow, raising Ulaanbaatar’s population to almost 1.5 million – half the country’s total. This causes profound challenges, including overpopulation of the capital, rural-urban inequalities, imbalanced social development, lack of adequate structures to protect migrant rights, and limited access to social services for internal migrants.

Cross-border challenges include unsafe migration, fraud, border inspection avoidance, visa violations and an increase incidence of human trafficking.

Chief of Mission

Mr. Giuseppe Crocetti was appointed as the IOM Chief of Mission in the People’s Republic of China and the non-resident IOM Chief of Mission for Mongolia based in Beijing, China in 2018. Mr. Giuseppe Crocetti graduated in Law and received his Masters in European Studies and International Relations from La Sapienza University in Rome in 2002. Admitted to the Bar soon after his university studies, Mr. Crocetti practiced law before the Italian courts before joining in 2004 the International Criminal Tribunal for the Genocide in Rwanda based in Arusha, Tanzania. Specializing in international human rights law with a focus on migrants rights, Mr. Crocetti began his career with the International Organization for Migration in 2005 serving first with the IOM Mission in Sri Lanka until 2007. From 2007 to 2009 Mr. Crocetti was posted in Cambodia leading IOM’s programming in the area of technical cooperation and capacity building on migration management. In 2009 Mr. Crocetti was appointed as the IOM Chief of Mission in Papua New Guinea where he served for four years assisting, amongst many other achievements, the government of Papua New Guinea in becoming a Member State of IOM.

Partners

IOM works closely with governmental, non-governmental, and civil society organizations across Mongolia to make migration work for all.