News
Global
18 July 2006

Assessment Mission Underway for Evacuation of Foreigners

An IOM team is in Lebanon today to assess the situation and numbers
of foreign nationals who need to be evacuated to a third country
following an escalation of conflict in the country.



IOM has already been approached by the governments of Sri Lanka,
Philippines, Bangladesh and Moldova to help evacuate those
nationals who want to leave Lebanon.



The Organization has also been asked to identify accommodation for
Sri Lankan migrants until their evacuation to Syria or Jordan by
land as well as a place there that could host the evacuees until
their eventual repatriation to Sri Lanka. With the situation
extremely fluid, the Sri Lankan government said it expects the
numbers of its nationals wanting to leave Lebanon to reach the
thousands. There are an estimated 80,000 Sri Lankan migrants in
Lebanon.



Prior to arrival in Lebanon, the team was in Syria partly on a bid
to gauge the numbers of foreigners who have already fled to Syria
and who may also need evacuation.



IOM is talking to donors in order to help finance the evacuation of
the stranded foreign nationals as well as liaising on the ground
with the Lebanese authorities, the UN, embassies and others.



For further information, please contact:



Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486/Mobile + 41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">jpandya@iom.int

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