With the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps in
Vavuniya, the government-controlled district adjoining the LTTE
conflict zone, now at over 150,000, IOM is ramping up its response
to the crisis with new tent shipments and the arrival of a team of
emergency public health specialists.

IOM Colombo today took delivery of the first 400 of 4,000 tents
ordered from China and Dubai that will be trucked directly to
Vavuniya. The shipments will continue over the next ten days.

The tents will complement thousands of emergency shelters built
by IOM to house the influx of IDPs, most of whom are escapees from
the LTTE-controlled enclave in neighbouring Mullaitivu
district.

"The needs are huge. There are just more people than we can cope
with at this point. We need more shelter, more sanitation, more
food, more health care – everything," says IOM Sri Lanka
Emergency Coordinator Giovanni Cassani.

In response to a request from the Ministry of Health, IOM on
Thursday transported 80 government doctors from Colombo to
Vavuniya, who will reinforce the district's overstretched medical
staff.

IOM-leased trucks and buses offer free transport to government,
UN agencies and NGOs moving aid workers and relief goods into
Vavuniya and other conflict-affected areas. 

As IDPs continue to flood into Vavuniya, the first 400 of some
3,000 IDPs displaced from villages in the Musali division of
neighbouring Mannar district to the west returned to their homes
after two years with help from the government and international
agencies.

IOM, which has operated in Mannar since 2002, is supporting the
returns by providing water tanks, sanitation, temporary shelters,
and repairs to homes and schools, through a project funded by
Australia.

IOM relief operations for IDPs in northern Sri Lanka are
currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF),
the UK, the Netherlands, Australia and the European Commission
Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO).

Sri Lanka has been an IOM member state since 1990, when the
organization facilitated the return of 90,000 stranded Sri Lankan
migrants from the Middle East during the first Gulf War. IOM opened
its Colombo office in 2002 and has had a major presence in the
country, including six sub-offices in the north and east, since the
December 2004 tsunami.

In addition to emergency response and reconstruction projects,
IOM's activities in Sri Lanka include technical cooperation in
migration management, capacity building, counter trafficking and
return and reintegration.

For more information please contact:

Aurela Rincon

Tel. +94 11 5325 392 (Ext. 379)

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

Passanna Gunasekera

Tel. +94 11 5325 300 (Ext. 341)

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

or

Chris Lom

Tel. +94 772300952 (mobile)

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