IOM in the Nineties

1990

IOM repatriates migrants stranded in the Middle East following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. From September 1990 to January 1991, IOM returns 165,000 people to Egypt and various countries in Asia.

5 million migrants directly assisted by IOM.

1991

IOM assists in the return of some 800,000 displaced Iraqi Kurds. 6 million migrants directly assisted by IOM.

1992

IOM provides logistical support and medical assistance to the displaced populations in former Yugoslavia.

IOM begins the Yugoslav Emergency Programme (YEP) for the evacuation and family reunification of displaced persons from former Yugoslavia.

Throughout the following eight years the YEP assists over 130,000 persons.

IOM starts providing technical assistance on migration issues to Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

1993

Following the signing of the Mozambican peace agreement, IOM organizes the return of almost 500,000 displaced persons, demobilized soldiers, and vulnerable groups amongst the internally displaced and refugees.

7 million migrants directly assisted by IOM.

1994

IOM assists in the return of 1.2 million Rwandans from neighbouring countries and in the relocation of some 250,000 refugees inside former Zaire.

1995

Following the outbreak of war in Chechnya, IOM evacuates almost 50,000 vulnerable people to safety in Ingushetia and Daghestan.

1996

IOM evacuates Kurdish populations from northern Iraq. In just over three months 6,000 people are resettled to the United States.

IOM assists more than 190,000 Bosnian refugees in Europe to return home.

1997

10 million migrants directly assisted by IOM.

1998

IOM provides shelter assistance to Hondurans left homeless by Hurricane Mitch.

1999

IOM organizes the Humanitarian Evacuation Programme airlifting some 80,000 Kosovar refugees from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to over 30 host countries. By the second half of 1999, IOM begins returning Kosovars home.