Turkish Airlines and UN Migration Agency (IOM) signed a long-term partnership agreement for the promotion of “safe, orderly and regular migration”.
IOM Director-General William Swing and Turkish Airlines chairman M. Ilker Ayci signed the agreement in Geneva.
Swing said: “It will allow us to do a lot more in terms of informing migrants, in terms of promoting migrant rights, in terms of training to sensitize airline officials to smuggling and trafficking in persons which is one of the heinous crimes of our times.”
“Through this agreement we see a way to promote the idea of living together in peace and traveling freely and legally as envisioned under the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations,” said Ayci.
IOM hopes that the agreement will lead to further collaborations on awareness raising campaigns on safe travel in countries of origin to help counter the trafficking of migrants as well as on cooperation on border support and documentation.
It is expected that Turkish Airlines will provide in kind support for IOM’s Global Film Festival on Migration which this year attracted 870 film submissions and will take place in over 100 countries in November-December 2018.
