With some 4,000 Zimbabwean migrants forcibly returned each month
from Botswana, the IOM office in Harare, in cooperation with the
Government of Zimbabwe, is opening a second reception and support
centre at Plum Tree, a town close to the Botswana border, to
provide humanitarian assistance to the returnees.

The IOM humanitarian assistance programme provides returned
migrants with transportation, food rations, basic medical care, HIV
and AIDS prevention, and awareness on the dangers of irregular
migration, including human trafficking and smuggling.

As part of the programme, border officials and police from both
countries will receive training on irregular migration, HIV and
AIDS, and sexual and gender-based violence issues.

IOM will also work with mobile populations such as truck
drivers, informal cross-border traders and commercial sex workers
who reside intermittently in the border area.  This component
of the programme aims to provide unbiased and objective information
to migrants to allow them to make informed decisions, and to
prevent and counter misinformation and misunderstandings –
not only about migration issues, but about the link between
mobility and HIV and AIDS.

Marcelo Pisani, IOM's Chief of Mission in Zimbabwe, explains,
"Cross-border migration is a daily reality in Southern Africa, so
IOM is lending its expertise to governments in the region to assist
them to better manage migration, including advice and support in
policy-making and dialogue."

The programme also aims to strengthen the relationship between
the Ministries of Home Affairs in Botswana and Zimbabwe and IOM,
similar to the strong coordination mechanisms already established
with Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Implemented in cooperation with the governments of Zimbabwe and
Botswana, local immigration officials, Population Services
International, District AIDS Action Committee, and United Nations
agencies, including the World Food Programme (WFP), the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNAIDS, the programme is
funded by the Swedish International Development Agency
(Sida). 

Since the opening on 31 May 2006 of its first IOM humanitarian
reception and support centre in Beitbridge on the border with South
Africa, IOM has assisted more than 206,000 Zimbabweans
migrants.

For more information, please contact:

Erin Foster

IOM Harare

Tel: + 263 4 355044

or +263 912 572 315

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