It makes eight of the agency’s 10 directors general American since the agency was founded 72 years ago.
GENEVA — Amy Pope of the United States elbowed aside her European boss Monday to land the top job at the International Organization for Migration, winning her bid to become the first woman to lead the U.N. migration agency.
His withdrawal paved the way for Pope to win by acclamation after member states decided to forgo what was suddenly a formality: the IOM rules requiring a two-thirds majority to win an election. The face-off was unusual in that Pope was looking to unseat her boss in a contest between allies. The United States and Portugal are fellow NATO members.
Eight of the agency’s 10 directors general since the International Organization for Migration was founded 72 years ago have been American. The organization has nearly 19,000 staff members working in 171 countries to promote “humane and orderly” migration. Vitorino won praise for boosting the budget and staff at IOM, helping to hire and promote more women into top positions, and reaching out to developing countries, supporters said.
The U.S. and the EU are both major funders of IOM facing challenges with mass migration. Critics fault the EU for failing to do more to prevent migrants from taking often-deadly boat trips across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe.
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