PAKISTAN - IOM Rapid Response Teams to Help Displaced Families Outside Camps - IOM is deploying two Rapid Response Teams to assess and respond to the needs of families displaced by military operations in Swat, Buner and Dir in Pakistan and who are living in out-of-camp settlements.
According to authorities, only 20 percent of displaced families are living in camps with the remaining 80 per cent living with relatives or friends, in public or private buildings, community guesthouses, rental accommodation or in spontaneous informal settlements.
The teams, which will be deployed early next week, will carry out need assessments, provide technical assistance for shelter support, collect and coordinate information with humanitarian partners and help distribute relief goods to vulnerable displaced families.
"Learning from our past experience following the 2005 earthquake, the Rapid Response Teams will, by working on the ground among the displaced, provide a clearer picture on how best to respond to urgent needs of the displaced. This will not only benefit our work, but also that of other humanitarian partners responding to this enormous displacement crisis," says IOM Head of Emergency and Stabilization Programme in Pakistan, Brian Kelly. "But we need to have many more of these teams and for that, we need funds."
IOM is appealing for US$ 14.7 million to carry out projects on healthcare, psychosocial support, security awareness, shelter and non-food items (NFIs), infrastructure and rehabilitation support, and awareness-raising on human trafficking in areas affected by the conflict.
Eleven IOM Rapid Response Teams, which started operations in earthquake-affected areas of Pakistan in 2006, saved a number of lives in emergencies, trained thousands of villagers and volunteers in disaster preparedness, provided risk assessments for 1,200 remote and high altitude villages, and distributed relief items to vulnerable families.
For those families living in 26 camps in Mardan, Charsadda, Peshawar, Nowshera, Lower Dir and Malakand districts in North West Frontier Province set up for people recently displaced, IOM has so far contributed 141 truckloads of non-food relief supplies. These include 800 tents, 20,000 fleece blankets, 40,000 quilts, 57,500 sleeping mats, 30,000 jerry cans, 20,000 mosquito nets, 20,000 plastic buckets, 8,000 kitchen sets and 20,000 kgs of soap.
According to NWFP authorities, the number of newly registered internally displaced people has increased to 2.5 million. This is in addition to another 553,916 people registered displaced in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), bringing the total number to more than three million since August 2008.
This figure is likely to increase with officials of the Special Support Group set up by the government quoted in local media as saying that an estimated 300,000 people are trapped in Swat Valley's Miandam, Madyan, Bahrain, Kalam and Mingora towns. That figure represents 20 percent of the total population of the area.
For further information, please contact: Saleem Rehmat, IOM Islamabad, Tel: +92 300 856 03 41 or
Email: srehmat@iom.int
BELGIUM- New Website Provides Reliable Information on Return and
Reintegration in Countries of Origin- IOM has launched a new
website to provide migrants in Europe with unbiased and up-to-date
information on return and reintegration opportunities in their countries of
origin.
The EC-funded website allows migrants who are currently residing in Austria, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, and Switzerland to have 24/7 access to comprehensive information on return and reintegration conditions in 20 countries of origin, from Afghanistan to Ukraine, including Albania, Angola, Armenia, Brazil, Cameroon, the DRC, Georgia, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Kosovo, Moldova, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Serbia and Sudan.
The website, which is available in Dutch, English, French, German, Greek and Portuguese, also contains detailed information on various practical aspects of life in home countries, including prospects for gainful employment, access to housing, health care and education or to enquire about the transferability of their pension funds.
"The website aims to help migrants make a fully informed decision about the possibilities for a productive return," says Pascal Reyntjens, IOM's Programme Coordinator in Brussels. "It also allows migrants to receive tailored information that will help them start new business ventures and professionals endeavours with the support of IOM offices in countries of origin."
The 18-month project builds on IOM's long standing experience in promoting multilateral approaches to encourage the successful return and reintegration of migrants in their countries of origin.
For more information, please visit http://www.iom.int/irrico or contact Pascal Reyntjens at IOM Brussels, Tel: +32 2 287 74 10; email: preyntjens@iom.int
