IOM yesterday began a series of 12 flights to help 165 very
vulnerable people stranded in Khartoum, together with 226 family
members and escorts, to return home to South Sudan.

The airlift, which is scheduled to continue for a week, will
include 11 charter flights and one commercial flight to Wau, Aweil
and Juba, and will be completed by the end of the month. It will be
funded by the Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) and UNHCR.

On arrival the returnees will be met by IOM South Sudan
officials and given help to travel on to their final
destinations.

The returnees are part of a bigger group of South Sudanese who
have been stranded at locations in and around Khartoum known as
"departure points" since late 2010.

They include elderly and disabled people, pregnant women and
people with serious medical conditions. Nine unaccompanied minors,
identified by UNICEF, will also travel with the group to be
reunited with their families in South Sudan.

IOM is supporting the governments of Sudan and South Sudan by
facilitating the voluntary return home of South Sudanese
citizens.  In 2011, it helped some 23,000 South Sudanese to
return by barge, train and air.

Conflict in border areas between the two countries and few
commercial transport links mean that it is now difficult for people
to return to South Sudan without help from the two governments or
the international community.

Major IOM return routes include barge movements from the Kosti
Way Station – a camp where more than 10,000 South Sudanese
are still waiting for transport south. IOM has also helped to
return people from Khartoum departure points by train. IOM air
transport has been restricted to vulnerable people deemed unfit to
take the journey by train or barge, both of which can take up to
two weeks.

In December, IOM organized an airlift of 65 vulnerable people
who were stranded at the Kosti Way Station. The returnees were
transported from Kosti by road to Khartoum, where they boarded a
flight to Juba, the capital of South Sudan.

Since South Sudan declared independence in 2011, over 350,000
South Sudanese living in the north have returned to South Sudan
either spontaneously or with the help from the governments and the
international community.

An estimated that 700,000 South Sudanese remain in the
north.  The Sudanese government has earmarked April as the
final date for all South Sudanese wishing to return home. People
staying in the north will subsequently have to regularize their
stay.

For more information please contact:

Julia Hartlieb

IOM Khartoum

Tel: +249 922 406 601

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

or

Samantha Donkin

IOM Juba

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