IOM Refugee Resettlement and Migrant Repatriation Continues in Syria
IOM is continuing to resettle refugees and repatriate vulnerable
foreign migrant workers from Damascus, despite periodic airport and
road closures and intermittent fighting in the city.
Over the past week, IOM Damascus has helped 118 mainly Iraqi
refugees to resettle to the USA (88) and Australia (30). Another
422 refugees are booked to fly out of Damascus to the USA, Canada,
Sweden, Denmark, Australia and the UK (via Romania) shortly. Some
500 refugees were resettled in July 2012.
Over the past week, IOM Damascus also repatriated 11 migrant
workers to three countries – Moldova, Morocco and South
Sudan. It also received 1,304 requests for repatriation from
individual migrants and embassies, including Sudan, Yemen, Ukraine,
Ghana, Afghanistan, Belarus and Moldova. This represents a dramatic
increase on previous weeks.
Link
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Syria Crisis Appeal
IOM has now been approached for repatriation assistance by 26
countries with a total of 67,000 migrant workers in
Syria.
Since December, IOM has helped 632 vulnerable migrants from
Bangladesh, Ethiopia, the Philippines, Sudan, Belarus, Romania,
South Sudan, Ivory Coast, Ukraine, Argentina, Algeria, Tunisia,
Morocco, Moldova and Chile to return home.
Another 144 migrant workers are booked to fly out of Damascus in
the coming days and a further 148 are expected to get bookings on
commercial flights by early next week.
“Most of the migrants who contact their embassies or come
to us directly are vulnerable, have had bad experiences or are
worried that the security situation could deteriorate further. We
are helping as many as we can with our very limited funding,”
says IOM Syria Chief of Mission Maria Rumman.
IOM this week appealed for USD 22.2 million for humanitarian
operations in Syria and neighbouring countries. This includes USD
15 million for the repatriation of vulnerable migrant workers and
their families. Other funding will go towards health care and
essential non food relief items for displaced families inside and
outside Syria.
IOM’s operations in Syria and neighbouring countries are
currently funded by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and
IOM’s Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism (MEFM.) Countries
contributing to the MEFM to date include the United States, Turkey,
South Africa, Romania, Mauritius and the Bahamas.
For a copy of IOM’s Syria Crisis Appeal, please go to:
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For more information please contact
Maria Rumman
IOM Damascus
Tel. +963933311204 or +962799946195
Email:
"mailto:mrumman@iom.int">mrumman@iom.int