Spokesperson: Christopher Lom
Extract
KENYA - Last Somali Bantus Leave Daadab for Kakuma - The last 807 Somali Bantu refugees scheduled for resettlement in the US will leave the Dadaab refugee camp near the Somali border for Kakuma in northwestern Kenya next week.
The group, the last of nearly 12,000 Somali Bantus moved by IOM from Daadab to Kakuma since June, will travel on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in two IOM-chartered planes flying twice daily.
In their new temporary home in Kakuma, the refugees will attend IOM- run cultural orientation classes, pending their resettlement in the US. This will include familiarization with western indoor kitchens and bathrooms, as well as basic skills to help their reintegration.
=A0In Kakuma, IOM has also begun work on 40 classrooms to be used for literacy classes. The classes, which will be provided by the NGO International Rescue Committee, are expected to begin with completion of the classrooms in mid-February.
For additional information, please contact:=A0 Sasha Chanoff at IOM Nairobi. Tel. +254.2.444.4167. Email: schanoff@iom.int
GENEVA - New IOM Publications - Three new IOM publications appear this week. They are:
- Francophonie et Migrations. This is a collection of papers from a Paris conference jointly organised by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, the government of Quebec and IOM. Topics covered include: migratory trends and diasporas in the francophone world; the contribution of migration to francophone cultural diversity; comparative approaches to integrating migrants in host countries; and migration and development.
- A new issue of International Migration - IOM's refereed academic journal - devoted to the Migration-Development Nexus. The issue includes the findings of a study on the impact that migration has on development by Ninna Nyberg Sorensen, Nicholas Van Hear and Poul Engberg-Pedersen of the Centre for Development Research in Copenhagen. Other articles include case studies of Afghanistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. Contributors also address the impact of remittances in developing countries and the role of economic instruments in managing migration.
Conflict resolution, confidence building and peace enhancement among Somali women. This is another collection of papers from a conference organized by IOM and funded by the British Department for International Development that took place in Hargeisa, Somaliland. It looks at the role of women in conflict resolution, with particular reference to Somalia, and their potential contribution to a resolution of the country's 13-year civil war.