An IOM capacity building workshop in Geneva this week marked the
start of an IOM project aimed at preparing mobile populations
against avian flu.

The project, funded by the Japanese government, will contribute
to the United Nations (UN) and its partners' overall action plan
for avian and human pandemic influenza preparedness with particular
reference to migrant and mobile populations. This project will be
piloted in Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria and Thailand.

IOM will work to help ensure migrants have access to health
services, particularly against emerging infections such as avian
flu; establish social mobilization campaigns encouraging
behavioural change among migrants involved in livestock rearing
while advocating for compensation strategies and contribute towards
the maintenance of livelihoods, governance, economic systems and
security in the event of a pandemic by working with governments to
develop avian flu contingency plans that take into account migrant
and vulnerable mobile populations.

With close to 200 million international migrants and hundreds of
millions more internal migrants, many of whom have limited
awareness and/or access to health and social services in host
communities and countries, it is critical that they are taken into
account and targeted through programme activities to ensure the
success of global anti-avian flu preparedness plans.

The workshop in Geneva attended by IOM project staff and which
ends today, will not only strengthen IOM's capacity to contribute
to the global effort on avian influenza but will also provide an
opportunity for various UN organizations to exchange ideas with IOM
and explore further collaborations. IOM is already a member of UN
country inter-agency teams in several locations. In Thailand, IOM
is working in close collaboration with the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO) and the
Thai Ministry of Public Health on raising awareness on avian flu
through information campaigns targeting some of the most vulnerable
migrant populations and their host communities.

About 172 people have died following the transmission of the
H5N1 virus from birds to humans out of a caseload of 291 people
around the world, mainly in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and
Egypt.

For further information, please contact:

Anita Davies

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9502

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