Located in the Indian Ocean, off the south-east coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar, the Republic of Mauritius is an island state composed its main island, Mauritius, and several outer islands (Rodrigues, Agaléga, Saint Brandon).

The Republic of Mauritius became an IOM member state in June 2006 and signed a cooperation agreement with IOM in September 2007. Following this agreement, IOM opened a Country Office in Port Louis, making it one of very few UN agencies with a permanent presence in Mauritius. In Mauritius, the mission also serves as liaison office with the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC), with whom IOM signed a cooperation agreement in November 2013, thus establishing strong affiliation with the IOC General Secretariat based in Mauritius.

Without an indigenous population, Mauritians are mainly descended from Indian indentured labourers, Chinese traders, African slaves, and Dutch, French and British colonists. Mauritius is home to approximately 1,3 M people and is both a destination country and a country of origin for international migration.

Since 2007, IOM Mauritius has supported the Government of Mauritius in addressing the challenges of migration and capitalizing on migration as a tool for development. IOM Mauritius has implemented a range of programmes and provided technical support in the areas of migration management, labour and facilitated migration, diaspora engagement, counter-trafficking, voluntary return and reintegration, migration and the environment, health and migration, etc.

IOM Mauritius holds the role of Country Office with Coordination Function for Seychelles. It functions under the strategic and operational guidance of the IOM Regional Office for East, Horn and Southern Africa, based in Nairobi.