Resettlement and Movement Management

Resettlement, assisted voluntary return and reintegration, and family reunification are core activities of IOM in Turkey.  All refugees are migrants, but not all migrants are refugees. Different people use different definitions of “refugee”.  In the broadest sense, it refers to someone who is seeking refuge, a place of safety.

Resettlement is one strategy to manage migration in emergencies. Resettlement refers to the organized transfer of refugees, displaced persons and other individuals in need of international migration services for whom arrangements may be made between the involved stakeholders and the concerned states.

A refugee is someone who is outside his/her country of nationality because of a well-founded fear of persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.  This is the definition in the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the one used by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).