On 28 May 2015, General Tanasak Patimapragorn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, received Mr. William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mr. Andrew Bruce, Regional Director, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and Mr. Jeffrey Labovitz, Chief of Mission, IOM Thailand. The main topic of discussion was the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, to be held on 29 May 2015.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed that the meeting would provide a forum for affected countries, concerned international partners, and relevant international organizations to discuss concrete and practical ideas to strengthen cooperation and address the problem of irregular migration. He expressed the Thai government’s commitment to save lives and provide humanitarian assistance to those people stranded at sea while also paying attention to the eradication of transnational criminal networks and the need to address the issue at the root causes through socio-economic development in countries of origin.

Mr. Swing expressed his appreciation for Thailand’s initiative in organizing the meeting, and assured that IOM would continue to support this endeavor.

IOM was established in Geneva in 1951 as the lead inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and related issues. IOM has a strong presence in Thailand, which has been a member state of IOM since 1986 and is currently home to IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and IOM Thailand Country Office.