Nicaragua - IOM Nicaragua this week launched a photo contest on Nicaraguan migration to Spain. It aims to raise awareness in Nicaragua and Spain and to highlight the multiple phases and dimensions of migration and migrants rights.

The photo contest, titled Human Faces and Rights: Nicaraguan Migration to Spain, is open to all residents of Nicaragua and Spain.  IOM is inviting anyone interested, especially migrants and their families, to illustrate through a photo the human face of migration, as well as the risks involved in migrating, and how migration has impacted their family, community and country of origin or destination.

“We want to engage migrants and their families in a participatory and dynamic way. They are the most impacted on a daily basis by their decision to migrate.  IOM wants them to illustrate and communicate their vision and feelings,” explains IOM Project Coordinator Alexandra Bonnie.

It is estimated that at least 800,000 Nicaraguans are living abroad.  Since 2005, Nicaraguan migration to Spain has increased exponentially, often taking place in an irregular manner, which makes migrants, especially women, vulnerable to abuse. In Spain, women represent 75 per cent of the migrants and are mainly employed in the service sector.

In 2012, IOM, working with Nicaraguan consular authorities, developed a project focused on improving the protection of human rights of Nicaraguans living in Spain.  According to a survey conducted as part of the project, Nicaraguan migrants said that they face racism and xenophobia in Spain because of their social status and gender.

“The photographs will be used as part of an information campaign on migrants’ rights, which IOM is carrying out through the Consulate of Nicaragua in Spain and in Nicaraguan municipalities, focusing on those municipalities that have experienced high rates of emigration,” says Bonnie.

The photo contest is part of a larger information campaign on the rights of Nicaraguan migrants, and is part of a project: “Protection of the Human Rights of Nicaraguan Migrants in Spain”. The project is financed by the IOM Development Fund and is implemented by IOM in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Consular Department) of Nicaragua.  The results of the competition will be published in early November.

For more information please contact

Alexandra Bonnie
IOM Nicaragua
Email: abonnie@iom.int
Tel.: + 505 278 95 69