The International Organization for Migration has appointed Mr. Richard Ots as the new Chief of Mission for the IOM mission in South Africa effective from 1 July 2014.

Mr. Ots will oversee the South Africa main office based in Pretoria including three sub-offices in Durban, Cape Town and Musina. As the head of IOM in South Africa, Mr. Ots will oversee the implementation of all IOM activities in South Africa.

Under his leadership, the IOM office in South Africa will continue its mandate of supporting the government of South Africa to analyse national migration issues and emerging trends in order to plan, develop and implement programmes aimed at addressing these migration issues.

Mr. Ots, a Dutch national, holds a Bachelor of Economics from the Hogeschool voor Economische Studies in Amsterdam; a Masters of Economics from the University of Sarajevo and an MBA from the University of Delaware. He speaks fluent English, Dutch, French, German and Bosnian. He is married with 2 children.

Prior to joining IOM, Mr. Ots worked for a number of public and private sector organizations in Kosovo, Jordan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, USA and The Netherlands. He joins IOM South Africa from Mauritania where he served as Chief of Mission for the past 4 years.

“It is broadly recognized that migration is a phenomenon that is of tremendous importance in the whole of Africa, from a historical, cultural and social perspective. What is perhaps not sufficiently know is the great contribution that migrants bring to the economic growth of the national economies, not only of the continent’s lower-income countries but also of countries such as South Africa. Migration truly has the potential to benefit people in the countries of origin, transit and destination. I look forward to serving IOM’s mandate of promoting humane and orderly migration, for the benefit of all in South Africa,” says Mr. Ots.

For more information please contact Gaone Dixon at IOM Pretoria, Tel: +27 72 127 7094, Email: gdixon@iom.int