The IOM office in Nicaragua, working in close coordination with the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is holding a series of workshops for
public officials at the national level and in the border
departments of Chinandega, Ocotal, and Somoto (northern border) and
Rivas (southern border), aimed at supporting and encouraging the
open and frank exchange of ideas to define the guidelines for
migration policies at the local, national and regional level.

As part of the IOM regional programme Building Capacity and
Providing Protection and Assistance to Vulnerable Migrants, funded
by the United States Department of State Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration (PRM), mayors from these border regions
this week discussed the needs, as well as migration issues of
concern and provided input for guidelines that will be used to
develop local migration policies or strategic action plans,
tailored to the needs of each municipality.

The input from these, and future workshops with civil society,
will be compiled by IOM in a Migration Profile for Nicaragua.

As a member of the Central American Integration System (SICA by
its Spanish acronym) the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs
will use the information collected to provide input for a regional
migration policy.

The departments involved in the current workshops are those with
the highest rates of emigration.

It is estimated that some 750,000 Nicaraguans are living outside
the country, or 14 to 16 per cent of the total population. In 2010
remittances sent by these migrants to families left behind reached
USD 822.8 million, which represented 12.5 per cent of GDP.

For more information please contact:

Brenda De Trinidad

IOM Nicaragua

Tel: + 505- 2278 9569

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

or

Alexandra Bonnie

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