Sri Lanka became a Member State of IOM in 1990 and IOM established its presence in the country in 2002. The IOM Sri Lanka Mission currently counts over 100 staff distributed among its Head Office in Colombo, Inbound and Outbound Migrant Health Assessment Centres & an Operations Centre in Colombo, and four Sub-Offices located in Jaffna, Kilinochchi and Batticaloa.

A decade after the end of a 30 year armed conflict, Sri Lanka transitioned to an upper middle income country in July 2019. As such, Sri Lanka’s efforts as a nation have moved from short-term emergency response and conflict resolution to the challenges and opportunities of long-term development. IOM’s focus of work in Sri Lanka has shifted from meeting humanitarian needs in the former conflict areas of the North and East, towards addressing long-term sustainable development goals across the country.

Against this background, the IOM Sri Lanka mission has recently taken stock of migration opportunities and challenges the country faces and has prioritized key areas of cooperation and cross-cutting approaches to pursue its strategic objectives as detailed in the IOM Country Strategy 2018-2020.

IOM in Sri Lanka works in close partnership with national and local government institutions, non-governmental agencies, grass-roots, community organizations and the donor community, to address emerging issues, needs and priorities of the Sri Lankan Government, migrants, partners, and Member States.