New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave permission to India to take full membership in the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

An official communiqué, issued after Thursday's Cabinet meeting, said India's membership in the 122-member IOM will help the country in "improving conditions for Indian workers abroad".

"India's membership of IOM will enable us to engage more actively with this inter-governmental organisation dealing with the issue of migration in areas of interest to us, particularly those relating to improving conditions for Indian workers abroad," said the communiqué.

India has been an observer in the IOM since 1991 after the multinational organisation helped in airlifting thousands of Indian nationals from Kuwait after the Iraq invasion.

"The IOM was of much help when some 300 Indian nationals were stranded off the coast of Mauritania, and in another incident supported 59 stranded Indian migrants in Kamsar in Guinea Conakry and facilitated their safe repatriation," the release noted.

Besides, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs is engaged with IOM in the Colombo Process on Labour Migration, a consultative mechanism for management of overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origins in Asia.

The Geneva-based IOM was established in 1951 as the International Government Committee for European Migration. It has 122 states as members, with 92 observers.

Source : IANS