IOM is an inter-governmental organization with currently 122 Member States and 92 Observers including 18 Observer States and 74 global and regional Organizations and NGOs. Its headquarters is in Geneva, though the largest presence is in the field, around the world in more than 340 offices.

At present IOM has over 5500 operational staff working in over 1600 active projects with a current budgetary value of almost 1 billion US dollars. While the work on projects is significant, IOM is both a policy and a project oriented organization, helping the world community to reflect upon, shape, enact and re-shape cooperative approaches to migration management. 

IOM has opened its office in Turkmenistan in September 1997 and since then the programme approach has addressed three incorporated and interrelated aspects of trafficking in persons: prevention through the dissemination of information to further increase public awareness among the population of the country and relevant stakeholders; protection and direct assistance to victims of trafficking; capacity building by supporting law enforcement and judiciary structures and strengthening their potential to more effective action against trafficking in persons. 

IOM’s current activities are focused on following major areas: