IOM is working with Thailand’s
Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) to include
Burmese migrant workers in a tsunami early warning evacuation
exercise this week.

The exercise, organized by DDPM and the German
international aid agency GTZ, will be held on Thursday 15 June in
Phang Nga province’s Tab-La-Mu village - one of the villages
hardest hit by the tsunami in December 2004.

Of the village’s 3,500 residents, 2,000
are migrants from Myanmar employed mostly in the fishing
industry.

IOM, which has employed health workers and
health volunteers to work with migrant communities in
tsunami-affected provinces for over a year, was asked to ensure
that the migrants receive adequate information and are prepared for
potential disasters.

An IOM rapid assessment of migrants’
knowledge of and attitudes towards disasters showed that the level
of preparedness was not comparable to that of the Thai
population.

IOM subsequently distributed cheap radio sets
and disaster preparedness information materials to several migrant
communities in collaboration with local NGOs.

Some 7,000 migrant workers in Thailand were
affected by tsunami and several hundred were killed.

For more information, please contact:

Aiko Kikkawa

IOM Bangkok

Tel.: +66 2 343 9300 or 9332 (direct)

E-mail: "mailto:akikkawa@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">akikkawa@iom.int