FRANCE - IOM Assists Refugees to Relocate From Malta - A group of 91 refugees have been assisted by IOM to relocate from Malta to France, where they will begin new lives.
The group are part of a total of 95 refugees that were selected by France in June for relocation to help relieve some of the pressures the small Mediterranean country is facing due to demographics and its geographic location, which puts it at the sharp end of migration routes to Europe.
The 73 adults, five children and 13 infants from Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Cote d'Ivoire and Sri Lanka, accompanied by French Ambassador to Malta Daniel Rondeau and by an IOM medical escort, were welcomed on arrival in Paris by Immigration Minister, Eric Besson.
IOM representative in Malta, Maria Pisani, who had been in close contact with the refugees during pre-departure cultural orientation sessions delivered by IOM Malta during the last weeks, said the refugees were full of hope for their new life in France before departure. "We're sure it'll be the first step to a better future for them and their children," she added.
The refugees are now at welcome centres where they are temporarily housed in order to be assisted in necessary administrative procedures. The French Office for Immigration and Integration will help them integrate through language and cultural orientation training.
The four remaining refugees will be assisted by IOM to travel to France in the coming weeks.
The refugees had arrived in Malta by boat and had spent an average of four years there. Most were living in open centres in Malta, and a few were in private accommodations.
This pilot relocation project is in response to the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum agreed in October 2008. It constitutes the largest intra-European resettlement operation with IOM support so far.
For further information, please contact Florian Forster, IOM Paris, Tel: 00 33 1 40 44 06 91, Email: fforster@iom.int or Maria Pisani, IOM Malta, Tel: +35621374613, Email: mapisani@iom.int
For more information on the IOM information campaign, please contact: César León, Tel:+ 502.2410.0012, Email: cleon@minex.gob.gt
HAITI - IOM Launches Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts, Rehabilitates Shelter Infrastructure - With a US$ 1 million contribution received from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), IOM Haiti has begun rehabilitating some of the shelter structures, primarily schools and churches, which suffered extensive damage during last year's hurricane season.
IOM began the rehabilitation of shelters on the heels of the Government of Haiti announcement this week, in partnership with the international humanitarian community, the country's contingency plan for the upcoming hurricane season. The initiative comes in response to calls by the Government to increase efforts to streamline emergency response plans and increase overall capacity to cope with displacement and damage caused by natural disasters.
In support of the government-led efforts, IOM, as lead agency in the area of shelter and non-food item (NFI) assistance, undertook to map out the country's temporary shelter infrastructure and assess conditions in which the displaced may be received at those sites.
Some 115 communes have been visited, and more than 828 potential shelter sites were identified, with an overall estimated capacity to accommodate upwards of 150,000 persons.
Additional shelter space is to be established by IOM in the coastal towns of Cabaret and Gonaives, both of which are considered among the country's most vulnerable to floods and landslides due to their deteriorated natural environment and lack of adequate water evacuation piping systems.
Construction of such structures will significantly increase shelter capacity and improve reception conditions, which remain below recommended standards at many locations. Rehabilitation efforts will be complemented through the pre-positioning of essential NFI, such as hygiene kits, kitchen sets, tools and emergency shelter materials, in key locations around the country.
For the 2009 hurricane season, which lasts from 1 June to 30 November, IOM estimates its funding needs at US$ 2.5 million in order to further consolidate national capacity for disaster preparedness, including the provision of adequate shelter responses to the displaced.
For more information, please contact Nuno Nunes, IOM Haiti, Tel. +509 2244 1218, Email: nnunes@iom.int.
HAITI - Former US President Bill Clinton Visits IOM Disaster Recovery Work in Gonaives - On the second of a three-day visit to Haiti this week, President Clinton, accompanied by Haitian President René Préval, flew to the northern city of Gonaives, which suffered extensive damage last year following a series of devastating storms, as record floods displaced tens of thousands and left the city encased in mud and debris.
Over the past months, IOM and its partners have actively contributed to recovery work initiated by the Haitian government, launching large-scale mud removal operations and rehabilitating some of the city's most essential infrastructure, including irrigation canals, schools and roads.
One such project is currently under way on Mecklembourg Street, in the heart of the K Soleil district, one of the most destitute parts of town. IOM originally helped reestablish access to the area through its street cleaning programme, which over the past six months has enabled many among the displaced to gradually return to their neighbourhoods.
The street, playing host to both presidents, is now being paved over, and adjacent canals are being rehabilitated, in an effort to decrease the area's extreme vulnerability to natural disasters due to poor and deteriorating infrastructure.
The IOM rehabilitation intervention, which helped generate employment for 4,300 individuals in the community, is part of the IOM PREPEP community stabilization programme, funded by the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
This year also saw the establishment of the USAID-funded HIGHER (Haiti Integrated Growth through Emergency Recovery) programme, in order to support recovery efforts launched in the aftermath of the 2008 hurricane season. Activities carried out by IOM in the framework of both initiatives will continue to work towards the rehabilitation of key public infrastructure and create an estimated 63,000 jobs this year.
Surveying the K Soleil project site, President Clinton emphasized the need to replicate such initiatives on a larger scale and address the dangers brought about by Haiti's increasingly fragile environment and deteriorated infrastructure.
The former US President is on his first visit to the country since being appointed as UN Special Envoy for Haiti. He has announced that his priorities as Special Envoy will centre on mobilizing the international community's resources so as to encourage job creation and the delivery of social protection to the country's impoverished population, both of which are key elements to Haiti's long-term stability and development.
For more information, please contact Frislain Isidor, IOM Haiti, Tel. +509 2244 1218, Email: fisidor@iom.int
SOUTH AFRICA - IOM Assists Vulnerable Zimbabwean Migrants to Return Home Voluntarily - IOM is assisting a group of 56 vulnerable Zimbabweans stranded at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg to return home voluntarily.
Since IOM began providing return assistance in May 2009, IOM missions in South Africa and Zimbabwe have assisted 151 persons, including 76 adults and 20 infants and unaccompanied minors.
A significant number of migrants, mainly from Zimbabwe, started seeking refuge at the Central Methodist Church when violent attacks on foreign nationals erupted in May 2008. Since then, the church has been a sanctuary for more than 1,000 stranded migrants at a time, including minors. They are huddled in and around the church, with poor ventilation, limited sleeping space, and unhygienic conditions. A number of raids have been conducted by the police, resulting in the arrest and detention of some of the migrants.
Two recent assessments conducted by IOM in Limpopo province, where Zimbabwean migrants first arrive, indicate that they travel to South Africa principally for economic reasons, particularly in search of work.
Those who desire to return home are mainly pushed by economic hardship and/or lack of accommodation in South Africa with some feeling more optimistic about the economic situation in Zimbabwe. Others are either keen to reunite with their family or cite health problems as their reason for wishing to return.
"IOM's humanitarian return assistance is offered only to those migrants who wish to return home voluntarily," explains Yukiko Kumashiro, IOM Project Development Officer.
IOM's help to these Zimbabwean migrants, funded by the US State Department's Bureau for Populations, Refugees and Migration (PRM), includes fitness for travel health checks, arranges travel documentation and transport, and provides nurses and escorts where necessary. In Zimbabwe, IOM receives the migrants at the point of arrival in Beitbridge and provides them with wet-feeding and onward transportation to their home towns or villages.
For further information, please contact Nde Ndifonka, IOM Pretoria, Tel: +27 12 342 2789 or Email: nndifonka@iom.int
