By Jean-Philippe Chauzy, IOM Spokesperson
West Timor - Repatriation
The Patricia Anne Hotung, the ship operated by IOM and owned by the Hotung Institute, sailed from Kupang to Dili for the last time today with 179 refugees on board.
The ship, which has returned some 10,000 refugees from the West Timor camps to East Timor since January 2000, is to be redeployed by the owner, Hong Kong philanthropist Eric Hotung.
IOM Director General Brunson McKinley described the ship's role as "invaluable" and "a remarkable contribution to the international humanitarian effort to bring East Timorese refugees home to begin rebuilding their devastated country."
The final sailing of the Patricia Anne was to have attracted some 459 returnees, but numbers fell when former low level TNI soldiers and their families decided not to travel until promised lump sum pension payments were paid by the Indonesian authorities.
Since 6 July, SATGAS, the Indonesian refugee taskforce and IOM have returned some 1,500 refugees, mainly across the Motaain land border near Atambua.
In addition to continuing to fund SATGAS' rental of private trucks to move returnees across the border, IOM is now also reimbursing refugees who travel independently by bus between Kupang and Atambua to join cross-border convoys.
Ongoing confusion over the number of people wanting to return, despite the June West Timor camp registration, means that IOM will continue to support returns by land, but will not replace the Patricia Anne Hotung with another ship in the immediate future.
In the event of large numbers of refugees deciding to return from the Kupang camps, other ships have been identified and could be chartered at short notice.
IOM has helped about 136,000 East Timorese to return home since October 1999. Some 40,000 of them travelled by sea, another 77,000 by land and 19,000 by air.
Ethiopia - Migrant Tracking Network for the Horn of Africa
The IOM office in Addis Ababa, along with WFP, and UNOCHA, hosted an informal consultation on the establishment of a Migrant Tracking Network for the Greater Horn of Africa. The event drew some 30 participants, including representatives of the Ethiopian government and local and international humanitarian organizations.
For the past 10 months IOM and WFP have been developing a system for the collection of data on pastoral migration within the region. A questionnaire was developed and field-tested, and a report reviewing the humanitarian and development literature on pastoral migration in the region was prepared. The questionnaire was distributed by a local partner NGO to 714 households living in eight refugee camps in the eastern part of Ethiopia. The questions focused on their migratory habits -- when they move, where they move to, how they move, what they move with, etc.
Working with UNOCHA, IOM has developed software that contains the information so far collected for managing and disseminating migration data. In order for the software to be properly used by governments and humanitarian agencies working in the Horn of Africa, IOM has developed a user's manual describing the technical features, and how data can be entered and retrieved. This software is the first step towards establishing a regional system to register and monitor pastoral migration within the region.
During the meeting discussions were held on various related topics such as the feasibility of collecting migration data in the region in light of the daunting logistical considerations and security concerns.