Uruguay - IOM and Uruguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs have signed a cooperation agreement to work together on the resettlement of 120 refugees from Syria, the first of whom will arrive in early September.

Following a recent announcement by Uruguayan President Jose Mujica offering shelter to vulnerable refugees from Syria, the IOM Mission in Uruguay began working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Human Rights, and UNHCR to ensure a smooth arrival and integration for the refugees in the South American country.

As part of the agreement, IOM, in coordination with UNHCR, will manage the transportation of the refugees from the Middle East to their final destinations in the country, provide health checks, and work with its partners to ensure a successful integration. 

The first group of some 40 Syrian refugees, most of them minors, are scheduled to arrive from Jordan in early September. A second group of some 80 Syrian refugees will arrive in the coming months.

“This agreement between IOM and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs marks a historic milestone in Uruguay in interagency support.  IOM is committed to work with its partners to ensure protection, confidentiality and the social integration of Syrian families in a country with a long history of migration,” said Alba Goycoechea, IOM Head of Mission in Uruguay.

From the 1800s to the 1960s, immigration from Europe (mainly from Italy and Spain) shaped the Southern Cone nation. The 1860 and 1908 census tallied the foreign born respectively at 34 and 17.4 per cent of the country’s total population. 

But after the 1960s, during a deepening economic, the social and political crisis in 1973, many Uruguayans migrated to countries in the region, North America and Europe.  Other large emigration waves occurred during the crises of 1982 and 2002. 

By 1996, according to official data, an estimated 15 per cent of Uruguayans were living outside the country.  An additional estimated 117,000 left the country between 1996 and 2004.  This brought the percentage of the population living abroad to approximately 18 per cent.

 The return of democracy, and more recently a period of significant economic growth and very low unemployment rates, (currently at 5.4 per cent) have been credited with an increase in immigration flows and an accelerated return of Uruguayan migrants.  

For more information, please contact 

Alba Goycoechea
IOM Uruguay
Email: agoycoechea@iom.int
Tel: +598 2 916 8043