Increased job losses due to the global financial crisis are
impacting upon Colombian migrants in Spain who are opting to return
home.

So far 799 Colombian migrants have applied for the Spanish
government financial incentives programme, created to encourage
unemployed migrants to return home.

The new Welcome Home centre, managed by IOM, will soon open its
doors in the capital Bogota to provide returning migrants immediate
assistance upon arrival, legal and psychosocial counselling and
help to continue their education, find employment or explore
opportunities to set up micro enterprises and to access medical
care.

An agreement signed last week by Colombia's Minister of Foreign
Relations, Jaime Bermúdez, the Mayor of Bogota Samuel
Moreno, and IOM's Director General, William Lacy Swing, paved the
way for the opening of the centre.

During the signing ceremony, Minister Jaime Bermúdez
said: "We have no words to express our gratitude to IOM for the
fine work they are carrying out in our country.  And we want
to continue working with IOM and its staff."

The IOM Director General hailed the Welcome Home Project as a
timely initiative that will help returning migrants achieve a
productive and successful reintegration.

According to Colombian government figures, 3.3 million
Colombians are living outside the country; 35 per cent in the
United States and 23 per cent in Spain.

A Spanish government programme introduced in November 2008 is
offering migrants from non-European Union countries with bilateral
social security agreements with Spain and who qualify for
unemployment insurance, lump sum payments to go home if they agree
not to return to Spain within a period of three years.  It is
estimated that some 100,000 persons are eligible to participate in
the programme.

For more information, please contact:

Jorge Andrés Gallo

IOM Bogota

Tel. + 5715946410 Ext. 142

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