Argentina - The IOM Mission in Argentina and Argentina’s Secretariat for Social Promotion of the City of Buenos Aires this week kicked off a series of workshops focusing on migrant women and gender violence.

The five half-day sessions, each targeting 25 participants, are designed to provide the necessary tools and training for Secretariat staff, civil society organizations, early childhood centres and community kitchen workers, who work with migrant women on a daily basis.

The trainings focus on migration in Argentina, the human rights of all migrants, gender and the development of strategies and tools to help migrant women who may be dealing with violent situations.

At the opening of the first workshop, Gabriela Fernández, IOM Chief of Mission in Argentina, presented the IOM handbook and fact sheet: “Migrant Women and Gender Violence”.

"Because of their migrant status, women may be exposed to violations of their most basic rights, as well as violent situations.  It is therefore important to rethink our approach and develop strategies to take into account their unique needs,” she said.

Buenos Aires, which has largest number of foreign residents of any city in the country, hosts 212,864 migrant women, representing 13.6 per cent of the city’s inhabitants.  The vast majority come from Peru, Paraguay and Bolivia.  Female migrants are mainly employed in domestic service, trade, textiles and horticulture.

IOM is part of a joint programme for combating domestic violence in Argentina, with UNICEF, UNFPA, UNDP, UN WOMEN, OCR, UNHCR and PAHO / WHO. The programme found that 27 per cent of complaints of domestic violence received by the authorities are made by migrant women. 

The workshops are part of an IOM project: “Promoting Human Rights of Migrants from a Gender Perspective,” supported by the IOM Development Fund.

The IOM handbook and fact sheet are available at: http://www.argentina.iom.int/no/images/Manual_OIM-digital.pdf. 

For more information, please contact

Mariana Beheran

IOM Argentina

Phone: +54 11 4815-1035/4811-9148/4813-9714

Email: mbeheran@iom.int