New funding of USD 1.5 million from the Dutch government will help
support IOM's humanitarian activities in Zimbabwe for a year.

In particular, funds will focus on continued assistance to
mobile and vulnerable populations such as the provision of
emergency food and shelter assistance, responding to new
displacement, sustaining livelihood support, and facilitating early
recovery. The funds will also support mobile clinics providing free
medical services and access to essential drugs in urban and
peri-urban settlements as well as the rehabilitation of water and
sanitation infrastructure in a country badly hit by cholera last
year.

The new funding will, in addition, fund activities carried out
at two Reception and Support Centres on the Zimbabwean borders with
South Africa (Beitbridge) and Botswana (Plumtree), where IOM offers
returned migrants with basic health care and referrals, information
on safe migration and the risks of HIV/AIDS as well as meals and
transportation assistance to final destinations home.

More than 314,000 Zimbabweans were assisted at the Beitbridge
centre between 2006 and 2009 while more than 57,000 migrants
returned from Botswana were assisted at the Plumtree reception
centre between June 2008 and June 2009.

The change in South African government policy allowing for
visa-free entry into the country resulting in an end to forced
returns has meant the focus on assistance at Beitbridge has shifted
to information-dissemination, developing options for the
sustainable voluntary return of vulnerable migrants from South
Africa and to assisting unaccompanied minors. 

"This new funding from the Dutch government will go a long way
to improving the quality of life for many people in need of
assistance," says IOM Chief of Mission in Zimbabwe, Marcelo Pisani.
"It builds on a long-standing partnership between Netherlands and
IOM in Zimbabwe that has already helped many Zimbabweans."

For additional information please contact:

Zuzana Jankechova

IOM Zimbabwe

Tel: +263 4 335048

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