Finland has been an IOM Member State since 1991. Following an agreement with the Finnish Government, IOM established the 'Regional Office for the Baltic and Nordic States' in Helsinki in 1994. In July 2005, IOM Helsinki extended its regional coverage beyond the Nordic and Baltic States to include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Following IOM's global restructuring exercise in 2011, the regional offices in Brussels and Vienna took over responsibility for most countries previously covered by IOM Helsinki. Since July 2011, IOM Helsinki is responsible for implementing a wide range of migration-related activities in Finland, and in addition supervises the IOM offices in Denmark and Estonia; it also remains a focal point for IOM's resource mobilization in the Nordic region. 

IOM Helsinki currently employs some 20 staff from more than a dozen countries.

Mr. Hans-Petter Bøe is the Chief of Mission of IOM Helsinki, as well as of IOM Copenhagen and IOM Tallinn.