El Salvador - Government representatives from the United States and El Salvador have visited San Salvador’s Migrant’s Care Center to check on the progress of a USAID-funded rehabilitation project implemented by IOM.

The US delegation included Senator Thomas Carper; Senior Counsel of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Holly Idelson; US Ambassador to El Salvador Mari Carmen Aponte and USAID Mission Director for El Salvador Larry Sacks.

They were accompanied by IOM El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras Chief of Mission Jorge Peraza Breedy; El Salvador Director General of Immigration Hector Rodriguez; Executive Director of the Salvadoran Institute for the Integral Development of Children and Adolescents (ISNA) Elda Tobar.

IOM’s project: Comprehensive Assistance to Unaccompanied Migrant Children and Families Returning to the Northern Triangle of Central America has remodelled and equipped 2,480 m² of the Center with over USD 1 million of USAID funding.

As a result of the reconstruction, the Center has expanded by 84 per cent and can now host 200 people a day, including children and teens.

The project supports the Salvadoran government’s strategy to improve the reception of returnees by creating a steady, orderly and efficient flow-through process. This includes setting up 10 cubicles for DGME immigration officials to register returnees in a private setting; two medical clinics and a nurses’ station, which will be administered by the Ministry of Health; specific private spaces designed for the reception and psychosocial care of migrant children and their families; and facilities for the care of disabled or elderly people.

For further information, please contact Alba Miriam Amaya at IOM El Salvador, Tel. +503 25210500, Email: aamaya@iom.int