IOM is opening a new field office in
Peshawar to begin the rehabilitation and reconstruction phase in
the earthquake affected area, working with the North West Frontier
Province Government.

The decision follows a series of high-level
meetings between IOM Regional Representative Hassan Adbel Moneim
Mostafa, NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani and the Prime
Minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK) Sardar Sikander
Hayat.

During these meeting Prime Minister Hayat
asked IOM to continue and expand its rubble removal and gabion
construction programmes.

As IOM seeks donor support for these
activities, discussions are underway on expanding IOM's role in
Pakistan to include health and education programmes, transportation
of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), and a request to help the
NWFP postal service deliver remittances arriving in the country
from Pakistani workers overseas.

"Hard work, good coordination between the
government and relief agencies and unseasonably warm winter weather
has allowed us to win operation Winter Race. We now need to think
about future activities," explains Hassan Adbel Moneim Mostafa. "We
must focus on building houses, clinics, and schools. IOM is
committed to strengthening and building capacity for local
governments and civil institutions and our staff in the new office
in Peshawar will provide this expertise to the people of
Pakistan."

To assist the government in returning affected
people to their homes, IOM has seconded Mansehra Shelter
Coordinator Mary Guidice to work on the UN-led Return Taskforce, to
help prepare for the safe and informed return of IDPs to their
places of origin. Although some spontaneous returns have already
taken place, it will be many months before all those wishing to
return home will be able to do so.

The emergency relief phase will officially end
on 31 March, with the vast majority of the emergency shelter
material distributed in both NWFP and PaK. But a lot of work
remains to be done, including preparing for the likely prospect of
vulnerable landless families requiring emergency shelter throughout
the summer and next winter.

In total, IOM has distributed: 11,768 tents,
21,995 shelter kits, 31,594 winterization kits, 162,222 blankets,
74,390 quilts, 120,614 Corrugated Galvanized Iron Sheets (CGI),
18,989 tarpaulins, and hundreds of tonnes of non-food items such as
tools, stoves, mattresses and kitchen sets.

In coordination with UN agencies,
international and local NGOs, and the Government of Pakistan, the
IOM-led Emergency Shelter Cluster built 549,872 temporary
transitional shelters and delivered 520,102 tents, more than 5
million CGI sheets, 6.4 million blankets and 2.2 million
tarpaulins/plastic sheets.

IOM will continue to run its offices in
Balakot, Batagram, Muzaffarabad and Bagh as forward
distribution/coordination centres.

For further information contact:

Darren Boisvert

IOM Islamabad

Tel: + 92 300 856 0341

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