The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced
USD 3 million in new funding to support IOM's return and
resettlement operations targeting some 77,000 internally displaced
people (IDPs) in the north of the country.

The assistance will include transport to allow IDPs to return to
their home districts; emergency shelter kits to build temporary
housing and transitional shelters; water and sanitation facilities;
and the provision of emergency health services across the
region. 

"Our focus is on vulnerable families, such as female-headed
households, the elderly and the disabled. By improving access to
shelter, and providing clean water and health care, USAID is
providing some of the critical services these people need to begin
to rebuild their lives,” said US Ambassador Patricia A.
Butenis. 

"Thousands of displaced families are returning to their home
districts with very little by way of shelter, water, sanitation and
basic health services. IOM will tailor this assistance to plug the
gaps and meet the most immediate needs in these areas," said IOM
Sri Lanka Chief of Mission Mohammed Abdi Ker.

Since the humanitarian emergency following the end of the war
against the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in May 2009, IOM has assisted the
Sri Lankan authorities in providing emergency shelter, water,
sanitation and hygiene, and primary health care to thousands of
IDPs, mainly in the Menik Farm displacement camp in Vavuniya
district.

In late 2009 IOM scaled up its emergency operations at the
request of the government to help over 100,000 IDPs return to their
home districts from the camp, which previously housed over a
quarter of a million people.

There are currently more than 93,000 IDPs remaining in the camp,
many of whom are waiting for permission to return home, pending
de-mining and removal of unexploded wartime ordnance from hundreds
of towns and villages across the North of Sri Lanka.

For more information please contact:

IOM Sri Lanka

Selina Salkeld

Tel: +94.11.5325 300 (Ext392)

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

Stacey Winston

Tel: 5325 300 (Ext 340)

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

or

Passanna Gunasekera

Tel: 5325 300 (Ext 341)

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