Page 7 - Issue 33

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ELITE Vol.1, Issue 33, July 2021 Express freely
Exprimer librement

An exclusive interview with Laurent de BoEck, iom

Egypt-Chief of Mission

Cairo: Reem Omran and Zeina Marei We had to seize the opportunity to ask Mr Laurent what does the
IOM exactly do and provide in Egypt. To begin with, Mr. Laurent
On Tuesday, the 1st of June, our esteemed faculty signed a explained that there are two main aspects globally; serving
Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nation’s member states is one, and all governments institutions which is
International Organization for Migration (IOM) to establish a extended to society, and that is regarded as the institution
Migration Research Unit (MRU). We, as Elite, took it upon approach. The migrant approach, on the other side, is basically
ourselves to further elaborate the purpose and the vision behind providing all the assistance a migrant may need. The IOM
this unit, that is ought to act as a leading centre of the academic supervises activities related to legal framework ensuring
community. Accordingly, we were honoured to conduct an strategies and mechanisms and delivering services and based on
interview with IOM’s Egypt chief of mission Mr. Laurent de the other approach making sure they are sustainable by
Beock, where we got insights about his role and how has it been like partnering up with other institutions and NGO’s, caring for the
working in Egypt. We also got to know an overview of what IOM wellbeing of migrants and their situations. Migrants are classified
does and provides, followed by a thorough dialogue over the MRU; into those who are highly vulnerable and those with low
we got to know its purpose, Mr Laurent’s expectations for it and vulnerability; the IOM provides protection to both, with priority
how may FEPS’ students benefit from it. to the highly vulnerable. Mr Laurent also added that they insert
We started off our interview by asking Mr. Laurent to introduce migrants into health care systems, help them find jobs through
himself. Mr Laurent explained that he had previously been the implanting specific programs such as self-employment or access
Chief of Mission of IOM Yemen, until he arrived in Egypt during to employment, guaranteeing migrants proper recruitment.
early 2018, and acted as IOM Egypt’s Chief of Mission ever since.
We were then eager to know how’s it like being the chief of Mission alongside working on their mental health and strengthen their
of IOM Egypt. Mr. Laurent described Egypt as a very interesting tolerance to racism and discrimination.
state when it to comes to migration, thus, working in Egypt was one
of its kind; that was mainly due to Egypt being a hub to a large
spectrum of migrants, whether those who are looking for long stays
or transiting in the area. According to Mr. Laurent, it’s fascinating
the variety of reasons people migrate over to Egypt, as they ranging
from socio-economic reasons and all the way to environmental
disasters. On the other hand, the number of Egyptians who
migrated abroad, and need aid in multiple areas, are fascinating as
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well; the number is so big that Egypt has been ranked 4th amongst
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the countries that receive highest amount money back from its
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citizens working abroad, at a rough amount of 29 billion dollars a
year. On an international scale, Egypt is amongst the most engaged
states in the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), and integrate
in global visions. In other words, Egypt in terms of migration is one
of the most exciting and challenging states there is.

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