IOM Director General Brunson McKinley will arrive in Pakistan this
weekend to meet with senior government officials, attend the 34th
Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM) in
Islamabad May 15-17th, and visit IOM projects in areas affected by
the October 2005 earthquake.

Director General McKinley will meet with senior government
officials including the President of Pakistan General Pervez
Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Interior Minister Aftab
Ahmed Khan Sherpao and State Minister for Labour, Manpower and
Overseas Pakistanis Raza Hyat Hiraj, as well as hold bilateral
meetings with officials attending the ICFM.

Mr. McKinley, who will be accompanied by a delegation of senior
IOM officials from Geneva, South Asia and Pakistan, will visit IOM
recovery and reconstruction programmes in earthquake-affected areas
with Brigadier Javed Warraich, who heads the Earthquake
Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) Transitional
Relief Cell.

The Director General will inaugurate 11 school buildings
established by IOM and funded by Dow Chemical Company in Sarban and
Pandu in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

He will also open a medium-term shelter project funded by the
Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) in
Chehla Bandi (Muzaffarabad) and formally inaugurate an IOM Housing
Reconstruction Centre in Abbottabad, which is co-funded by UN
Habitat and Ireland.

Mr. McKinley is also expected to perform the groundbreaking
ceremony at a UNFPA-funded Tehsil Headquarters Hospital in Oghi in
the North-West Frontier Province.

Immediately after the October 2005 earthquake, IOM coordinated
the international relief effort to provide emergency shelter to the
3.5 million people affected by the disaster. It also delivered
emergency shelter materials to survivors and provided free
transport to humanitarian agencies and thousands of internally
displaced people.

For more information, please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.300.8565967

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int