An IOM team has completed a two-day assessment mission to western
Georgia to evaluate the needs of families who have been displaced
from their homes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The assessment, carried out in cooperation with local government
authorities in Kutaisi, Batumi, Khelvachauri and Kobuleti indicates
there is an immediate need for folding beds, refrigerators, gas
stoves, water boilers and hygiene kits to supplement the assistance
so far delivered.  

According to the local authorities, some 2,200 internally
displaced people in Imereti region will require long-term
assistance, as they will not be able to return to their former
homes in Abkhazia's Kodori Valley and the South Ossetia conflict
area in the foreseeable future.

In Batumi, the number of recently displaced individuals
requiring long-term assistance has now dropped to a few hundred, as
many displaced families have returned to Gori and surrounding
villages or relocated elsewhere.

IOM in western Georgia will, in the coming days, begin the
procurement and distribution of prioritized relief items.

   

In Tbilisi, IOM's daily distributions of relief kits to vulnerable
displaced families sheltering in collective centres was suspended
on Monday as thousands of protestors took to the streets of the
capital to protest against Russia's actions.

The distribution of non-food relief items to people affected by
the conflict will resume later today with the support of local
volunteers deployed in many of the city's collective centres.

"With the school year about to resume, there is increasing
pressure to find viable shelter alternatives for thousands of
displaced people still living in cramped schools and kindergartens,
which often still lack basic facilities," says IOM's Marc
Hulst.

"At the request of the Georgian government and in coordination
with our UN partners, IOM is looking at the possibility of
procuring prefabricated shelters to house some of the displaced,"
he adds.

Other options under consideration include the provision of
construction materials and offering housing subsidies to vulnerable
displaced families.

As part of the UN Flash Appeal, IOM asked for an initial USD 1.9
million to provide emergency logistical support, shelter and
non-food assistance over the next six months to tens of thousands
of internally displaced people in Tbilisi and in other parts of
Georgia.

To date, IOM has received USD 100,000 from the Slovak government
to provide non-food and shelter assistance to vulnerable families
displaced from South Ossetia.     

For more information, please contact:

Khatuna Didbaridze

IOM Georgia

Tel: + 995 32 25 22 16

E-mail: "mailto:kdidbaridze@iom.ge">kdidbaridze@iom.ge