As part of a two-year programme that is providing urgently needed
reception and reintegration support to Guatemalan migrants returned
by air from the United States and by land from Mexico, IOM has
assisted 10,000 migrants.

With funding from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), IOM launched  the Guatemalan Repatriates
Project (GRP) in early June, which expanded the basic services and
support provided to returned migrants to include: reception at the
airport and the land border, telephone calls to family members in
Guatemala and the United States, personal hygiene kits,
psychosocial support, transportation to communities of origin,
legal advice, and support with social and economic reintegration
through vocational training and job placement by the GRP Referral
and Opportunities Centres.

Working with private sector enterprises that are willing to
employ returnees, who are returning home with new skills, IOM has
assisted some 300 returned migrants at the centres in the capital
and various communities of origin.  The participating
returnees received vocational training or job placement, as well as
legal advice and psychosocial counseling.

Since 2004, Guatemala has seen a yearly increase of
returnees.  In 2010, Guatemala's General Directorate of
Migration recorded a total of 29,095 returns by air from the United
States, and 28,090 by land from Mexico.

Gonzalo returned from the United States in June and was assisted
by the IOM programme.  Now he is employed by IOM, providing
assistance to other migrants returning home and in need of advice
and support.

"I am grateful to IOM Guatemala for all their support. 
They gave me the opportunity to stay in my country; now I have a
job and I am helping others in need," says Gonzalo.

Guatemalan returnees face significant obstacles to
reintegration, including human rights infringements, limited
economic opportunities, difficulty accessing formal education
programmes, in some cases limited knowledge of Spanish,
discrimination in home communities, restricted access to social
services and credit, psychosocial problems associated with forced
return, and lack of information about their legal rights.

For more information, please contact:

Marina Palma

IOM Guatemala

Tel: +502.23.14.00.41

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