In the one year since IOM began a programme to resettle refugees in
France, the Organization has assisted 717 refugees to begin a new
life in the European country.

The programme, led by the French Immigration Ministry and in
coordination with the UN's refugee agency, provides refugees
destined for resettlement in France with administrative support for
their paperwork, medical examinations, pre-departure cultural
orientation and transport assistance with medical escort.

The majority of the refugees were Iraqis (474), but there were
also refugees from Africa, Asia and elsewhere.

Among them were a group of four Palestinian families who had
spent up to four years at the Al-Waleed camp in the Iraqi desert,
close to the Syrian border.  Approximately 1,400 people are
still at the tented camp, living in a precarious and deprived
situation.  For them and others, resettlement to a third
country like France is often their only chance for a life with
hope.

For further information, please contact:

Florian Forster

IOM Paris

Tel: 00 33 1 40 44 06 91

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