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GENEVA – The United Nations Migration Agency has selected a former Deputy Prime Minister of Portugal as the next Executive Director of the International Organization for Migration, delivering a stern reprimand to the Trump administration for its management of migration issues. The approval of the new leader, António Vitorino, came after the US candidate, Ken Isaacs, was forced to withdraw after finishing last in three advance ballots. The result was confirmed by Leonard Doyle, the communications director of the immigration agency
. Isaacs, vice president of the evangelical Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, had been considered a strong candidate to take charge of the International Organization for Migration, led by an American for 67 years and of which the United States the largest donor.
But he drew attention from his appointment in February because of Twitter posts and re-tweets denigrating Islam as a violent religion and casting doubt on climate change. He later apologized for the posts, made his Twitter account private and insisted in interviews that he believed in climate change.
The election was considered a barometer of US influence in multilateral agencies. international commitments on climate and trade, as well as leaving the United Nations Human Rights Council
. Isaacs has long experience in humanitarian emergencies around the world in his work for Samaritan's Purse, but his candidacy for running a global agency dealing with migration has been tainted by his own track record, as well as by the migration policies of Mr. Trump
. Mr. Trump decided to ban citizens from several predominantly Muslim countries from traveling to the United States, and he showed utter contempt when US authorities separated migrant children from their parents. on the southern border with Mexico
. Vitorino was elected by acclamation on the final ballot, defeating Laura Thompson, Costa Rica's former ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva and now deputy director-general of the migration agency.
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