Biography:

Expert in migration governance and policy development, Laurent De Boeck is currently based in Cairo, Egypt, where he represents the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Previously, April 2016-December 2017, he was based in Sana�a, Republic of Yemen, where he led the IOM humanitarian response and stabilization for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and stranded migrants. He has been based in Geneva during 2015, where he headed the Labour Mobility and Human Development Division in the IOM Headquarters. September 2012 - February 2015, he was the Chief of Mission of the IOM to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Years 2010-2012, he was the Director of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Observatory on Migration, advising the Secretary-General of the ACP Group of States and covering the 79 ACP countries. Years 2006-2010, he was Deputy Regional Representative and Regional Programme Development and Donor Relations Officer at the IOM Regional Office for West and Central Africa. Years 2001-2005, he superwised the liaison with the European Union Commission, Parliament and the European Council of Member States.

His work with the IOM has taken him to Indonesia, Haiti and Madagascar, where he played a key role in developing long-term programming strategies and post-earthquakes, cyclones and tsunami contingency responses, early-warning and disaster-risk reduction activities. He has also been involved in reconstruction and development programs of post-crisis situations such as in Burundi, C�te d�Ivoire, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bosnia-and-Herzegovina and Kosovo. In most of his functions, he has developed mechanisms, policies and frameworks to engage expatriate communities into long-term development and reconstruction of their countries of origin. With over 24 years of experience in migration issues, he has a vast expertise in various migration-related fields, such as migration technical cooperation with States, international migration law, trafficking in persons and illicit smuggling of migrants, labor mobility, international migration and development, health migration, movements and resettlement assistance to refugees, stranded migrants and IDPs, as well as emergency post-crisis responses.

He obtained a degree in Public and International Affairs, Diplomacy and International Economy; as well as a degree in Social and Economic Sciences, from the University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium.

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