De actuele persinformatie over de activiteiten van IOM wordt verspreid via Press Briefing Notes. Deze worden twee keer per week (dinsdag en vrijdag) doorgestuurd naar de media wereldwijd.
De informatie is alleen in het engels beschikbaar.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - Facilitating Travel and Securing Borders - IOM, in cooperation with the Dominican Republic's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and Police, and the Directorate of Migration, is today starting a series of training sessions aimed at strengthening government officials and law enforcement agencies capacity to inspect and detect fraudulent travel documents and visas.
The Dominican Republic is at the crossroads of international migration routes in the Caribbean, where many regional and extra-regional migrants converge either as a final destination or as a transit point en route to North America and Europe.
In a region where national economies depend on the brisk movement of tourism and trade, the Dominican Republic, with 19 ports of entry, (air, land and sea) and a thriving tourism industry, is committed to facilitating legitimate leisure and business travel while safeguarding national and regional security.
Mrs. Rosario Graciano, Vice Minister for Migration Issues and Consular Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explains the need for such training: "Our open door policy towards tourists and other travellers visiting our country or wanting to establish residence, must coexist with control mechanisms that will detect other foreigners coming to our country with the less honourable intentions of committing crimes."
The manual and other training materials developed by IOM for the Dominican Republic, focus on travel and identity document examination, detection of altered documents, handling and securing evidence, and detection of impostors. This week's sessions, funded by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (DOS/WHA), will enable the government to conduct future capacity building trainings on these issues itself.
For more information, please contact Nidia Casati, IOM Santo Domingo
Tel: + 1 809 482 1030 ncasati@iom.int
PHILIPPINES - FAO Donates Vegetable Seeds, Farm Tools to New Settlements - The UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) has delivered vegetable seeds and farm tools to two new permanent shelter sites built by IOM and USAID for families made homeless by Typhoon Reming in November 2006.
The project, in collaboration with the Spanish government and the Philippine Department of Agriculture, delivered 150 packs of vegetable seeds and farm tools including 30 shovels, 15 rakes, 15 hoes and 75 trowels to the resettlement communities of Arandurugan-Kenney Village in Mauraro, Guinobatan, and Bungkaras Village in Tagaytay, Camalig.
The tools will be kept by the Homeowners' Association in each settlement and will be freely available for use by any of the nearly 1,700 families living in the two locations.
FAO representative Jaime Montesur also promised that his organization will provide fruit-bearing seedlings to be planted around the perimeter of each site and will sponsor a training programme on urban gardening for residents.
IOM and USAID, which are contributing some 700 of the 1,700 homes in the two settlements, have supported the Philippine government's sustainable recovery programme for survivors in Albay and Camarines Sur provinces since the typhoon.
For more information, please contact Mark Maulit. Email: mmaulit@iom.int.
Tel: +63.9215763047.
