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IOM Director General Visits Flood Relief Operations in the North

IOM Director General William Lacy Swing today made a short visit to
flood-affected areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and supported the
distribution of tents and relief items to flood victims.

The distribution in the village of Pir Sabaq consisted of 150
shelter kits donated by IOM, which included tents and non-food
items, such as blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans.

"We should take heart from the courage and resilience of the
millions affected and the efforts by the authorities and their
partners that have saved countless lives," said IOM Director
General William Lacy Swing.

"We want to ensure that the people affected regain their
livelihoods, which requires that we don't allow the massive scale
of destruction to overwhelm us," Director General Swing added.

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Ninety percent of Pir Sabaq's 7,000 inhabitants were affected by
12-feet high floods and tents and food are critically needed.

During his trip to Pakistan, the Director General discussed
relief efforts for flood victims and commitment to work with the
government in his meetings with the President of Pakistan, Asif Ali
Zardari, other senior government officials, the National Disaster
Management Authority, as well as with U.N. humanitarian
partners.

IOM relief operations have been extended to Balochistan this
week, with the start of the distribution over 2,000 shelters by the
local non-governmental organization Johanniter International.

In addition, IOM has sent 10,000 blankets, 6,000 buckets and 397
tents to the same NGO for distribution in Balochistan.

Johanniter International also received 49 tents and 1,720
blankets from IOM to hand out to flood victims in Nowshera, in
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The 40 Emergency Shelter Cluster agencies have so far handed out
115,253 tents and 77,152 tarpaulins, covering the needs of nearly
1.1 million people.

Some 241,400 blankets, 54,000 kitchen sets and 83,800 beddings
were distributed by the cluster, which includes the United Nations
and other international organizations and local NGOs, and is
coordinated by IOM.

For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan and flood
relief pictures, please go to: "paragraph-link-no-underline" href=
"http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan" target="" title=
"">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan
.

For additional information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.3008560341

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

or

Chris Lom

Tel: +66.819275215

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