The International Organization for
Migration continues to tap decades of experience responding to
global emergencies to deliver relief supplies and assist hundreds
of people injured by Saturday’s devastating earthquake on
Indonesia’s Java island.

IOM has delivered an estimated 190 tons of
food- and non-food items to earthquake-affected districts on behalf
of the Indonesian government and international relief
organizations.

In addition to conducting assessments of
damaged medical infrastructure, IOM’s 11-member medical team
has helped more than 150 patients newly discharged from hospitals
and 160 of their accompanying family members return to their home
villages.

“IOM is known for its transportation and
logistics expertise and the ability of its emergency medical teams
to react quickly to events in the field,” says IOM Executive
Officer Paul Norton. “We are applying decades of experience,
most recently in responding to the earthquake in Pakistan and
Kashmir, and the tsunami in Aceh and Sri Lanka, here in
Java.”

IOM created and maintained the crucial
land-based supply route into Aceh in the wake of the Dec. 2004
tsunami, delivering more than 80,000 tons of materials into the
country’s northernmost province. In addition to providing
emergency care, the Organization’s health staff coordinated
the return to Nias island of close to 600 patients treated at
hospitals in Medan, North Sumatra following the devastating March
2005 earthquake.

Thirty-five IOM staff from around Indonesia,
including many veterans of the tsunami response, are coordinating
operations in Yogjakarta, including the complicated logistics
behind the emergency. Trucks have been pre-positioned at regional
airports and a depot established at the governor’s office to
speed the delivery of supplies, and dozens of minivans have been
leased to provide support services to the injured.

Twenty vehicles have also been made available
to transport patients in need of immediate surgical assistance from
the overcrowded hospital in Bantul to a US Marine field hospital
for treatment. IOM is also searching for alternate accommodations
in Yogjakarta for those survivors who are not yet ready to return
home.

For more information, please contact:

Paul Dillon

National Press Officer

Yogjakarta, Indonesia

Banda Aceh, Indonesia:

Tel: +62 812 698 8035

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

Shima Roy

Information Officer

Yogjakarta, Indonesia

Tel: 0811.947.143

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