Spokesperson: Niurka Piñeiro
Extract
IRAQ - IOM Staff Move to Basrah - IOM international staff moved into Basrah in southern Iraq on Saturday, marking IOM's first permanent presence in the country.
Previously, under UN security rules, IOM staff working in the area during the day, were obliged to return to Kuwait each night.
The travel time between Kuwait and Basrah is two hours and the relocation will significantly expand the area that IOM will be able to cover when assessing the needs of the population, liaising with the authorities and implementing projects.
The eight staff will temporarily work out of a shared UN office and accommodation building, until work is complete on separate premises.
Since the outbreak of war on 18 March, IOM has helped over 2,750 foreign workers fleeing Iraq to return to their home countries from Jordan, Syria and Iran.
Three weeks ago IOM launched an US$8 million US government-funded programme to identify and finance quick impact community improvement projects inside Iraq. The first project funded by the so-called Iraq Transition Initiative (ITI) was the rehabilitation of a school in the southern port city of Umm Qasr.
IOM is also responsible, under the supervision of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, for coordinating the work of agencies bringing relief to internally displaced people in the south and centre of the country.
WEST AFRICA - IOM Prepares Evacuation of Third Country Nationals from Liberia - An IOM team has completed an assessment mission in camps and host communities in southeastern Liberia to identify and register Third Country Nationals (TCN) in need of repatriation assistance.
The IOM mission, conducted in the Harper area with the logistical assistance of the Danish Refugee Council and UNHCR, successfully registered 722 TCNs (383 adults, 275 children, 64 infants) currently sheltered in Harper and Pleebo camps and in surrounding host communities.
The TCNs from Burkina Faso (308), Mali (61), Guinea (242), Ghana (52), Nigeria (31), Togo (6), Gambia (1) and Senegal (1) have all expressed their desire to return as soon as possible to their countries.
IOM is in the process of setting up the logistics to repatriate all TCNs from the region. A ship with full international certification has been identified. The "MV Sandra" can transport up to 350 passengers on the three-day journey to the port of Takoradi, in western Ghana. In Accra, IOM is also preparing the onward transportation of all non-Ghanaian nationals to their home countries.
In Harper, the IOM team stands ready to register more TCNs who are currently employed on rubber plantations and who wish to leave. Another group of refugees and TCNs currently stranded further north in the Zwedru area is said to be trying to get to Harper.
The evacuation, which could start as early as mid May, will be organized in coordination with the Governments of Liberia and Ghana, UN Agencies and the NGOs Danish Refugee Council and Medecins sans Frontieres.
To date, several hundred TCNs are reported to have escaped southeastern Liberia on board fishing boats bound for Ghana. The security situation in the region remains tense as fighting between government forces and various rebel groups rages on. Because of the fighting, several areas in Grand Gedeh County remain inaccessible to humanitarian organizations.
The Governments of Canada and the Netherlands have provided funding to IOM for this operation. IOM is appealing to donors for US$4 million in order to assist third country nationals and internally displaced persons in need.
KENYA -First Group of Somali Bantus to Travel to the United States - The first group of 74 Somali Bantus will leave Kakuma refugee camp on 11 and 12 May to be flown to Nairobi where they will spend 10 days before leaving for the US. "There is a tremendous sense of excitement throughout the community; they've been waiting for this moment for years," said IOM cultural orientation teacher Sasha Chanoff who recently returned from Kakuma.
In Kakuma, IOM has provided ten-day cultural orientation courses to all those approved for resettlement. The lessons include US laws, employment, housing, cultural adjustment and day to day modern life. Without previous exposure to electricity or any form of modern living facilities, Somali Bantus have eagerly learned how to cook, use a stove and sink, a modern day bathtub and toilet, alarm clocks and lights.
To supplement cultural orientation classes and to address the high rate of pre-literate adults within the community, IOM provided funding to the International Rescue Committee to implement a targeted literacy programme. IOM's Cultural Orientation Project works closely with the IRC programme to insure that literacy classes incorporate relevant cultural topics and immediate survival literacy needs. At the end of April more than 5,000 Somali Bantu adults were enrolled in the literacy classes.
A persecuted minority of rural farmers in their home country, Somali Bantus fled Somalia's civil war in 1991 and 1992 and found refuge in Kenya's camps, where they met renewed persecution at the hands of Somali refugees. In 1999 the US government recognized the Somali Bantu plight and pledged to resettle close to 12,000 residing in Dadaab refugee camp and more than 500 residing in Kakuma camp.
In 2002, due to Dadaab's proximity to Somalia, the US government made an unprecedented decision to move all the selected Dadaab-based Somali Bantus to Kakuma camp, near the Sudanese border in northwestern Kenya.
IOM in collaboration with NGOs constructed an additional refugee camp in Kakuma with 2,700 mud-brick shelters, pit latrines and a water and road infrastructure, and a US refugee processing centre complete with interview rooms, a medical clinic and X-ray machine and cultural orientation classrooms.
Between July and September 2002 IOM transported 12,000 Somali Bantu refugees across 900 miles of Kenyan countryside to their new "transit" shelters in Kakuma. US refugee processing began in September 2002 and by the end of November some 1,500 had been accepted for resettlement. Newly instituted refugee security checks have delayed departures.
IOM will provide new clothing to all Somali Bantus upon arrival in Nairobi. This first group of 74 should be followed by additional departures soon after.
For more information, please call Sasha Chanoff, IOM Nairobi Tel: 254 2 44 174 schanoff@iom.int
RWANDA - IOM Assists EU Election Observer Mission - Working closely with the European Commission and the European Parliament, IOM is helping in the deployment of a team of EU Election Observers who will monitor the referendum on the new constitution taking place on 26 May.
On 29 April, IOM organized the transportation to the Rwandan capital Kigali of the mission's core team headed by the Luxembourg MEP Ms. Colette Flesch. Today 12 long-term observers, who will be deployed all over the country to observe the referendum, are leaving for Kigali.
Over the coming days, IOM will provide a range of technical, logistical and administrative services to the EU Elections Observer Mission both in Rwanda and in Europe.
In Rwanda, IOM will assist in the selection, recruitment and contracting of local support staff; will assist in the deployment of observers and will provide equipment; accommodation and in-country transportation. In Europe IOM activities include establishing and maintaining communication with members of the mission, and preparing and organizing travel and visa arrangements.
The EU observers will be re-deployed from September to December 2003 to observe the pre-electoral and voting process in view of the presidential and legislative elections tentatively scheduled for October and November 2003 respectively.
IOM has provided support in various electoral processes, most recently in Nicaragua in 2001 and in Sierra Leone and Pakistan in 2002.
For additional information, please contact Sanja Celebic, Tel: 32 2 282 45 76, scelebic@iom.int or Anabelle Hagon, Tel: 32 2 235 66 94 ahagon@iom.int