Friday 18 October 2002

Press Briefing Notes
Friday 18 October 2002
Spokesperson: Niurka Piñeiro

TUNISIA - Ministerial Meeting on Migration in the Western Mediterranean Ends
AFGHANISTAN - Sangatte Asylum Seekers Return
COLOMBIA - Support for Colombian Peace Effort





TUNISIA - Ministerial Meeting on Migration in the Western Mediterranean Approves the Declaration of Tunis - A two-day conference that brought
together Ministers and representatives of member Governments of the Western Mediterranean Dialogue, the "5+5"(Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia) ended yesterday in Tunis.

The Ministers approved an ambitious "Declaration of Tunis" to guide future cooperation on migration management.

The event, organised by the Government of Tunisia in close cooperation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and with the support of the Government of Italy and others, allowed participants to discuss a broad range of migration issues and establish a continuing forum for dialogue.

The Declaration of Tunis stressed the importance for countries of the Western Mediterranean to exchange regular information on migration issues, to fight migrant smuggling and trafficking through concerted multilateral efforts, to develop regular migration for work programmes and to work with migrant communities in destination countries.

"The success of this conference shows that countries on both shores of the Western Mediterranean are committed to sound migration management," said IOM Director General Brunson McKinley. "Setting up a regional partnership to manage migration is the best way to fight irregular migration and its effects."

The links between migration and development were discussed in the context of development assistance to areas with a high emigration potential. Participants also discussed how to involve migrants in the sustainable development of their countries of origin through the transfer of skilled human resources, remittances, investments, and micro-credit schemes.

The process of integrating regular migrants into host societies was also discussed, in particular in relation to family reunification, access to employment, housing and social benefits. Participants agreed on the need to promote migrants rights in the Western Mediterranean through measures to fight intolerance, discrimination, xenophobia and exploitation. Health of migrants and equality of treatment of women also featured.

The Western Mediterranean 5+5 dialogue was launched in December 1990 in Rome. Foreign Ministers of the 5+5 countries, who met in Lisbon in January 2001, underlined the need for countries in the region to cooperate in an organised and coordinated way in dealing with migration issues.

The "five + five" now has a migration management dimension. Tunisia will remain in the lead, though other member countries will host meetings.

IOM lends its expertise and acts as an honest broker to support regional consultative processes on migration related issues in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe and will continue to assist the "5+5" migration dialogue.

AFGHANISTAN - Sangatte Asylum Seekers Return - The first five Afghans to accept the French government's offer of voluntary repatriation from the Sangatte Centre near Calais arrived in Kabul on Wednesday. IOM met them on arrival as per the agreement with the French authorities.

Under the agreement, IOM will provide temporary accommodation in Kabul and onward transportation to the returnees' places of origin. Two of the five are from Mazar-e-Sharif and one is from Jalalabad; the other two are from Kabul.

The five, who were each given a Euro 2,000 reintegration grant by the French authorities, were escorted by French officials to Istanbul, where they were put on an Ariana Afghan Airlines flight to Kabul.

According to IOM Kabul airport operations officer Khaled Qadir, the five were "apprehensive on arrival and had very little idea of what to expect. They are currently re-discovering Kabul and doing some shopping. We expect to arrange their transport home on Saturday," he said.

COLOMBIA - Support for Colombian Peace Effort - IOM is providing support to the Media for Peace Foundation (Medios para la Paz) for a Website that is helping media professionals covering the Colombian armed conflict.

The Media for Peace Foundation is a Colombian organization specialized in training for journalists, teachers and students of social communication and journalism and research on media ethics as it pertains to the Colombian armed conflict.

A group of 64 Colombian journalists joined their efforts to create the Foundation with an aim to provide responsible media coverage of the Colombian conflict and support peace building efforts in the country.

Through a virtual network, Media for Peace has succeeded in linking 704 journalists in Colombia and abroad through the exchange of documents, analytical pieces and articles reflecting the Colombian conflict.

Through this innovative approach, Media for Peace has received requests from Colombian journalists on how to handle difficult situations when they are covering news on the conflict. The Media for Peace staff, according to their speciality, provide a free advise to journalists on how to cover the Colombian armed conflict, the peace process and practicing journalism in a war situation.

The coordinator of the project, Martha Yolanda Gómez says, "The web page is of great use because journalists can count on a place where professionals gather to discuss their profession and their objectives. This was the case of a journalist who was asked to receive a kidnapped person by the guerrilla. He presented the case to the Website members and together, they provided guidance and advise on his work, which is to inform the public. They suggested that if he agreed to the guerrilla's request, he would lose his impartiality."

IOM has also provided support to the Media for Peace Foundation in the organization of 39 workshops attended by 1,106 persons, including the media, institutions, teachers, researchers and journalism students.

The Website of Media for Peace, in Spanish, English, German and French, www.mediosparalapaz.org has a daily update and more than 6,500 inquiries per month. This programme is part of IOM's Peace Strengthening Programme in Colombia funded by USAID. IOM has provided US$159,000 to this initiative. For more information, please contact IOM Bogotá - Liliana Arias larias@oim.org.co or Diego Beltrand dbeltrand@oim.org.co Tel: 57.622.7062 or 636.2434.