New funding for IOM humanitarian operations in Zimbabwe (22/03/07)

 

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.

Source: IOM

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