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UNHCR funds IOM-assisted returns from quake zone
18 April 2006
ISLAMABAD, April 18 (UNHCR) - The UN refugee agency is providing US$2.25 million
to support the International Organization for Migration’s efforts to facilitate
the voluntary, safe and dignified return of internally displaced persons (IDPs)
from relief camps in Pakistan’s earthquake-affected areas to their villages and
towns.
On Friday, the two agencies signed an agreement under which UNHCR will fund a
significant portion of IOM’s part of the UN Action Plan to provide medical
screening and transport facilities to quake survivors, especially vulnerable
people, willing to leave the camps for home with the onset of spring. The
US$2.25 million project will run from April to the end of August.
“People are voting with their feet, and tens of thousands of people have already
gone back to their villages,” said Michael Zwack, UNHCR’s Deputy Representative
in Pakistan and head of the Camp Management Cluster in the UN relief effort. “We
need to sustain the pace of returns, but at the same time, ensure that it is
conducted in a voluntary, orderly and safe way.”
Hassan Abdel Moneim Mostafa, IOM’s Regional Representative in Pakistan, added,
“We have been providing return assistance to the displaced people within the
constraints of weather, road conditions and funds. This new cooperation will
help us speed up the assistance to those who are determined to go back home.”
The funding will allow IOM to continue providing medical screening in camps
before departure to make sure that passengers are fit for travel. Special
arrangements will be made for vulnerable individuals like the disabled, the
elderly, pregnant women or young children. The organisation will develop a
movement plan based on available data, road reconnaissance and community-based
assessments to facilitate orderly transport to areas of origin.
Since the start of organized return in March, UNHCR has counted more than 88,000
quake survivors leaving relief camps for home. By early April, IOM had helped
more than 3,000 families return to their areas of origin.
This latest agreement is not the first collaboration between the two agencies in
the earthquake relief operation. In the wake of October 8, UNHCR contributed
relief supplies to IOM’s ‘Winter Race' in the higher altitudes, while the
IOM-led Emergency Shelter Cluster has worked closely with the UNHCR-led Camp
Management Cluster to provide much-needed shelter in the relief camps throughout
the winter.
Media Contacts: Ms. Vivian Tan, UNHCR, Mobile: 0300 500 1133
Mr. Saleem Rehmat, IOM, Mobile: 0300 856 5967
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