Leaked Email Suggests Trump Admin Pressuring UN Agency to Self-Censor on 'Political Sensitivities' Like Climate Crisis or Risk Defunding

Reporting by The Guardian Wednesday suggests that the Trump administration is pressuring the world’s leading inter-governmental migration organization to self-censor on the climate emergency and other “political sensitivities” by threatening to cut funding for the United Nations-affiliated agency.

In a leaked email obtained by the newspaper, a U.S.-based official at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) informed colleagues last month that any activities funded by U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) must not conflict with “anything that seems at odds with the administration’s take on U.S. domestic/foreign issues.” Sensitivities included the climate crisis, sustainable development goals, and global compact for migration.

The U.S. provides about a quarter of the Geneva-based IOM’s $2 billion annual budget; $18 million of it comes from PRM, The Guardian noted. In the email, the unidentified IOM official warned that “PRM is very willing to cut funding in areas that it deems are not in line with U.S. foreign policy objectives.”

The agency official added in the email that “documents related to program activities, especially those that will be published online, may require prior review and approval by the donor” and requested that colleagues share relevant documents “in enough time to make any necessary adjustments in coordination with PRM.”

Although “there is no indication that messaging on projects funded by other donors will be censored, or that there will be any operational impact on existing programs,” IOM sources and further communications reviewed by The Guardian indicate that “the agency is avoiding direct references to climate change in documents for projects funded by other U.S. government entities such as USAID,” the newspaper reported.

The IOM “recognizes and respects the priorities and limitations of its donors, including the U.S.,” an agency spokesperson told The Guardian. A State Department spokesperson said that “the U.S. government supports organizations such as IOM, to conduct program and activities that are consistent with our foreign policy goals and objectives.”

The Trump administration’s stances and actions on the supposed “sensitivities,” from President Donald Trump vowing to ditch the Paris climate accord to detaining migrant children in “cages,” have provoked fierce condemnation from the international community. Just this week, Trump baselessly smeared people fleeing islands in the Bahamas that were devastated by Hurricane Dorian—providing yet another indication of how his administration will handle a global refugee crisis that experts warn will worsen as temperatures continue to rise and the world endures more extreme weather.