IOM's response to help people displaced by the 26th October 
eruption of Mount Merapi in Central Java is expanding in response
to government requests for aid to cope with the ongoing emergency.

Thousands of families were forced to flee with nothing when the
volcano erupted three weeks ago. To date IOM has delivered 1,582
mattresses, 1,582 blankets and 1,894 sarongs to displaced families
in relocation sites in Boyolali and Sleman districts.

It has also donated a large rub hall tent to the Indonesian
National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) to use as a warehouse
for aid, and 2,500 masks and 60 goggles to the Crisis and
Information Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) in Yogyakarta.
It is also providing technical assistance to the DRR to track the
impact of the eruption on people living close to the volcano.

IOM trucks have also evacuated 54 cattle from high risk areas in
Yogyakarta and Boyolali districts to the Kulon Progo region,
southwest of Yogyakarta, in coordination with the Provincial Animal
Husbandry and Animal Health Department.

"The evacuation of livestock sounds odd in the context of so
many people being at risk. But it is important for two reasons. It
protects people who would otherwise probably stay behind inside the
20km volcano exclusion zone to take care of their livestock. And it
will allow the owners to restart their livelihoods as soon as the
eruption ends and they are able to go home," says IOM Yogyakarta's
Johan Grundberg.

According to the BNPB, since the eruption, 259 people have died
and 511 have been hospitalized. Some 354,264 people are now living
in government-run displacement camps in 12 districts in Yogyakarta
and Central Java.

"While the volcano seems relatively calm at the moment,
volcanologists say that it could erupt again at any moment. So we
don't know how long people are going to be displaced, which makes
planning assistance relatively difficult," says Grundberg.

In close coordination with BNPB, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and partner agencies,
IOM is providing free transport for government and aid agency
donations of non-food relief items including mattresses, blankets,
clothing, hygiene kits and medicine to displaced families at
relocation sites in Central Java and Yogyakarta.

It is also planning projects that will improve water and
sanitation facilities at the relocation sites, to bring them into
line with internationally recognized minimum humanitarian (SPHERE)
standards.

IOM's Merapi response is funded by the Humanitarian Aid
department of the European Commission (ECHO).

For more information, please contact:

Jihan Labetubun

IOM Yogyakarta

Tel: +62811190702

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