Scoop: UN migration agency sends out 3,000 pink slips in mass layoffs

The International Organization for Migration, or IOM, sent out pink slips — notice of dismissal from employment — to 3,000 employees working on a United States resettlement program, including hundreds based at home in the latest blow to an aid and development community reeling from the Trump administration’s foreign aid funding freeze. “The loss of funding from the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, USRAP, meant we had to notify about 3,000 of our colleagues that their jobs will be ending,” Amy Pope, IOM’s director general, told staff in an internal newsletter last week. She said that further cuts are likely. “I said during the staff meeting two weeks ago that I would not sugarcoat the difficulties ahead, and those difficulties are apparent this week as we began making cuts in our staffing,” according to the newsletter reviewed by Devex. “I wish I could say this is the end of the difficult decisions ahead. But I cannot. All of IOM is impacted when Member States make major funding cuts, and that means additional adjustments, in missions and at headquarters — including in the Executive Office — are likely,” she wrote. The move comes weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order declaring “that entry into the United States of refugees under the USRAP be suspended.” It added that “entry into the United States of refugees under the USRAP would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” The program — which was managed by the U.S. State Department in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services — was designed to facilitate the legal resettlement of vetted refugees in the United States. Pope explained in the newsletter that the mass layoffs are necessary because the funding was earmarked to a single project, and that project has been the target of a U.S. work stoppage and funding freeze. The move also suggested that the migration agency has little expectation that funding will resume after the U.S.-imposed 90-day pause on foreign aid ends. “When funding for those projects ends, the positions that keep those projects going also end,” Pope wrote. “It hurts because the people who worked on USRAP are some of our best and brightest. They’ve dedicated their lives and careers to serving people who really need their help. Over the past year, many of them have worked around the clock on some of the largest movements of people in IOM’s history.” In a sign of the trauma the U.S. freeze, and the resulting layoffs, are inflicting on staff, IOM circulated guidance to its managers charged with delivering the bad news. “As a consequence of structural adjustments, managers may be faced with having to deliver difficult messages, such as notifying affected staff members of termination and non-renewal of their appointments,” the guidance counseled. ”Be prepared for a range of emotions, from shock to anger or sadness. Select the right setting — choose a private, distraction-free space to hold the conversation. Practice your approach — rehearse the message while maintaining empathy and professionalism.” IOM employs some 20,000 people worldwide, including 5,000 who worked on the USRAP program. The agency serves a population of migrants whose numbers in 2024 swelled to over 280 million of the world’s most vulnerable and distressed people. The U.S. resettled more than 100,000 refugees in 2024 through USRAP, the largest number of refugees admitted since 1994. In September, then-President Joe Biden proposed the admission of 125,000 refugees for 2025. “Refugee resettlement exemplifies the generosity that has always been at the core of the American spirit,” former Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the time, noting that refugees contributed over $124 billion to the U.S. economy over the preceding 15 years. The Trump administration has put the brakes on the program for now, but has indicated it is willing to continue limited resettlement through USRAP. In a Feb. 7 executive order, the president vowed to consider admitting white Afrikaner South Africans into the U.S. and halt foreign aid to the African country unless the government abandons policies Trump sees as contrary to U.S. interests and hostile to white land owners, including by rescinding a new land expropriation law and dropping its case against Israel before the International Court of Justice. Most of IOM staff supporting the U.S. admissions program began receiving notices last week informing them that their jobs would come to an end in either 30 or 90 days — although some were extended until September, according to an IOM official who received the layoff notice. The U.S. freeze “has an immediate and substantial effect on IOM’s operational and planning capabilities and results in considerable financial constraints,” the termination notice noted. “Unfortunately, these developments require the Organization to undertake an immediate reduction of staff positions projectized to the USRAP. We sincerely regret to inform you that your position is impacted by this reduction in staff resulting from funding constraints. The Director General has decided that your appointment will be terminated, effective Thursday, March 6, 2025,” the notice read.