The Japanese government has committed a total of USD 37.9 million
in funding for 2011 to support IOM humanitarian services for
migrants, migrant producing regions, host communities, returnees
and internally displaced persons.

The funded projects, in Afghanistan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan,
Pakistan, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Tajikistan and Tanzania, will
also provide technical support to increase government capacity to
manage increasingly complex migration flows as well as coping with
displacement due to natural disasters.

In Sudan, funds will be used to assist communities in the
Southern Kordofan and Abyei Areas through the provision of new or
rehabilitated water resources to reinvigorate strained livestock
operations. The livelihood assistance also seeks to ease tensions
between farming communities and nomadic groups over scarce natural
resources in the region, which have led to open conflict between
the two groups and displacement.

In Kenya, IOM will initiate a series of conflict mitigation and
livelihood activities targeting youth in the northern part of the
country aimed at minimizing resource-based conflicts in the region
and strengthening the capacity of the pastoralist, local migrant
and refugee hosting communities to adapt to the increasing direct
and indirect impacts of climate change.

A significant portion of the Japanese funding – roughly 25
per cent – will be used to address migrant vulnerability in
the Horn of Africa through a range of activities seeking to improve
protection for stranded and intercepted migrants and victims of
human trafficking as well as provide support to host communities
and immigration authorities in addressing emerging migration
challenges.

IOM is responding to a request from the Tanzanian government to
provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Home Affairs,
Immigration and Police Departments in managing the growing mixed
flow of migrants, including asylum seekers and children from the
Horn of Africa and the humanitarian emergency this is creating.
Funding will enhance border management capacity including migrant
rescue, screening and referral systems.

Japanese funding will support the ongoing re-integration of
Rwandan refugees into their home communities through a
comprehensive programme focusing on capacity building of national
and local government institutions and direct assistance to
returnees and other vulnerable groups in the communities.

In Kyrgyzstan, IOM is implementing vocational training projects
for multi-ethnic youth groups as well as providing tolerance
education to children. The projects seek to address long-standing
tensions between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek ethnic groups in the Ferghana
Valley related to a variety of factors including isolation between
ethnic groups in the south, high unemployment and limited education
and which led to violent conflict in 2010.

Funding will also go towards supporting Tajikistan in
establishing a disaster response mechanism. The country is one of
the poorest in the world with a rugged and mountainous terrain
– over 50 per cent of the country lies above 3000 metres
–  making it prone to landslides, flooding and extreme
weather disasters. IOM projects will provide staff training for a
newly created Emergency Operations Centre as well as essential
equipment and infrastructure support.

Funding for IOM operations in Afghanistan will support continued
reintegration and livelihood assistance to returnees, internally
displaced persons, and victims of human trafficking (VoTs). IOM
will also provide assistance to the Afghan government and to
national NGOs in developing a national referral mechanism for the
protection of VoTs.

The largest share of the 2011 Japanese funding for IOM projects
will be used to assist approximately 450,000 flood affected
individuals in Pakistan. Working together with the government of
Pakistan and its National Disaster Management Authority and
humanitarian partners, IOM will continue to provide crucial shelter
and livelihood assistance to flood victims, as well as to restore
basic community infrastructure including health and educational
services.

"Japan's contribution of nearly USD 38 million towards IOM
operations this year is a testament to a robust and growing
partnership in response to global humanitarian and peace building
activities as well as the migration challenges facing Japan
including migrant integration, human trafficking and refugee
resettlement," IOM Director General William Lacy Swing says.

The funding announcement comes shortly before Director General
Swing's third official visit to Japan during which he will meet the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, and of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology as well as delivering a keynote
speech at an international workshop on migrant integration
organized with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sophia University
and the City of Shinjuku.

For more information, please contact:

Yuko Goto

IOM Tokyo

Tel: + 81-3-3595-0108

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