The Swedish government has given IOM USD 3.6 million for its
humanitarian programmes in Zimbabwe. Part of the funding will be
used to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to returned
Zimbabwean migrants from Botswana by establishing a Reception and
Support Centre at Plum Tree at Zimbabwe’s border with the
country.

More than 38,000 Zimbabwean migrants are returned annually to
Plum Tree and surrounding border posts from Botswana.

The remainder of the funding will support IOM’s work to
provide essential humanitarian assistance for returned migrants
from South Africa at its Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre
and to provide sustainable reintegration and recovery help for the
migrants through a livestock revolving fund project.  It will
also allow IOM to assist mobile and vulnerable populations in
Zimbabwe, including the provision of temporary shelter to displaced
people.

IOM’s Reception and Support Centre at Beitbridge in
Matebeleland South, a joint initiative with the Zimbabwean
government, has provided returnees with transportation, food
rations, basic health care and information on HIV/AIDS, migrants'
rights and irregular migration issues such as human trafficking and
smuggling since it opened in May 2006.

“This new funding is in recognition of the humanitarian
work done by IOM to restore the dignity of the migrants and mobile
populations,” says Sweden’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe,
Sten Rylander, who visited the centre. 

This is not the first Swedish funding for the centre. Sweden and
Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID)
have supported the centre’s first year of operations.

Up to 12,000 Zimbabwean migrants are forcibly returned through
Beitbridge on a monthly basis from South Africa though in January
2007, figures rose to more than 21,400 returnees and more than
14,000 in February. Since IOM opened the Beitbridge centre in
May 2006, the Organization has provided humanitarian assistance to
more than 80,000 Zimbabwean migrants.

"The Swedish funding will go a long way in alleviating the
suffering of Zimbabwe's most vulnerable mobile and vulnerable
populations," said IOM’s chief of mission in Zimbabwe,
Mohammed Abdiker.

It is estimated that as many as three million Zimbabweans live
legally and illegally in South Africa to escape economic hardship
which has seen inflation levels reach 1,280 per cent and
unemployment levels estimated at 80 per cent.

For more information, please contact:

Nicola Simmonds

IOM Harare

Tel: + 263 4 335044

E-mail: "mailto:nsimmonds@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">nsimmonds@iom.int