Tuesday 4 November 2003

Press Briefing Notes
Tuesday 4 November 2003
Spokesperson: Niurka Piñeiro

URUGUAY - South American Conference on Migration
SPAIN - Voluntary Return Programme
FINLAND - European Seminar on Social Mediation
COLOMBIA - Award for IOM Programmes


URUGUAY - South American Conference on Migration - This week the Government of Uruguay, with the technical
cooperation of IOM, will hold the IV South American Conference on Migration. The IOM Director General, Brunson McKinley will take part in the two-day meeting.

The Conference is being held in response to the commitment made in the III South American Conference on Migration held in Quito in August 2002.

The Plan of Action approved by the participating South American governments last year aims to:

Outline and coordinate regional strategies and programmes in the field of migration;
Consolidate and develop the South American Observatory on Migration;
Harmonize and coordinate migration information systems;
Harmonize and coordinate migration management; and
Harmonize and coordinate South American legislation on migration.





The countries taking part in this regional dialogue are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru,
Surinam, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The delegations will include the Heads of the Consular Affairs and Migration Offices and other government authorities. Representatives from Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the United States, as well as international and regional organizations, have been invited as observers.

The IV South American Conference on Migration, to be held in Montevideo, ensures the insertion of the region into the current international dialogue and consensual processes taking place worldwide, such as the Puebla Process in Central and North America, with a view to responding to the challenges of migration.

For more information, contact IOM Montevideo, Eduardo Charpentier Tel: 5982.916.8043.

SPAIN - Voluntary Return Programme - In the past two months, hundreds of migrants currently in Spain have applied for assistance to return home under the IOM Voluntary Return Programme.

Migrants living in all areas of Spain have contacted IOM, local government offices, NGOs, embassies and consulates to take part in the voluntary return programme.

On 20 October, IOM assisted the first group of 60 migrants to return to their countries. Since then, IOM has received on average 200 calls and 80 visits per day. The majority of the migrants requesting return assistance are from Ecuador and Colombia and are living in the Madrid metropolitan area.

IOM is working with dozens of partners to process the large numbers of applications being received. The interest in the programme far exceeds IOM's expectations and confirms the fact that many migrants in Spain are living in precarious situations.

The IOM database shows that some 400 migrants would like to receive assistance to return to their countries of origin. So far the commission composed of IOM, the Ministries of Interior and Labour and Social Affairs (IMSERSO) have approved 60 applications. A further 80 are being reviewed.

At the launch of six-month pilot programme in September, IOM expected to assist some 150 migrants. But because of the unexpected numbers asking for return assistance, an evaluation of the life and funding of the programme is scheduled for the coming days.

Official government figures report that at 31 December 2002 there were 1.3 million foreigners residing legally in Spain. For the same period, the number of foreigners registered at the municipal level reached almost two million (1,977,946) - 287,840 from Africa and 322,604 from the Americas. This number would include irregular migrants who are able to register at the local level to avail themselves of basic social services.

The persons receiving return assistance are provided with airline tickets and small travel grants, and may receive reintegration grants in the countries of origin as may be established by the commission. These reintegration grants may be eventually linked to more comprehensive reintegration initiatives in the countries of origin.

IOM is working in close cooperation with the Spanish Ministry of Interior and IMSERSO, which has provided funding.

For more information contact: IOM Madrid, Tel: +34.91 594 3670 iommadrid@iom.int

FINLAND - European Seminar on Social Mediation - This week, IOM Helsinki is holding the European Seminar on Social Mediation for Refugee Communities in Europe.

The two-day seminar, which is part of the "Let's Talk" project, brings participants together to share experiences and exchange information on current social mediation practices in Europe.

Participants to the seminar include national government officials, NGOs, mediators and other persons involved in practical mediation activities. Some 50 participants from the 14 European Refugee Fund member states, as well as participants from the three Baltic States are expected to attend the seminar.

On Thursday, the first day of the seminar, presentations will be made on topics related to social mediation and refugee issues. This will be followed by three workshops on topics related to the work of the criminal justice agencies in social mediation, language and cultural aspects of the mediation situation and integration of refugees. The working groups will exchange information and develop ideas and good practices for social mediation.

Key speakers include Jacques Faget, Professor of the University of Bordeaux, France; Dag Hareide, Chair of the Nordic Forum for Mediation and Merit Wager, Citizens' Ombudsperson for Refugees, Sweden.

The "Let's Talk" pilot project trains refugees to work as social mediators. The project's main focus is to develop social mediation practices for the settling of criminal cases and disputes in situations where the parties come from refugee communities or where disputes occur between refugees and local communities. The aim is also to facilitate the integration of refugees and create structures through which multi- ethnic conflicts can be prevented and resolved.

Let's Talk is being carried out in cooperation with the cities of Vantaa and Helsinki in Finland and the North-East Consortium for Asylum Support Services, in the United Kingdom . It is co-funded by the European Refugee Fund..

For further information, contact Tiina Palonen tpalonen@iom.int Tel: 358 9 684 11 524 Visit the Project's Website on http:// www.iom.fi/letstalk

COLOMBIA- Award for IOM Programmes- IOM's chief of Mission in Bogota Diego Beltrand has received on behalf of the Director General an award for the work carried out by the Organization in the country.

IOM programmes currently support the internally displaced persons (IDPs) and receiving communities, address the needs of demobilized children, assist victims of trafficking and promote peace at a community level.

Over the past three years IOM's post-emergency programmes have provided direct assistance to more than 815,000 persons living in the departments of Caquetá, Chocó, Santander, Norte de Santander, Valle del Cauca, Nariño, Cauca, Putumayo and Huila. This USAID funded programme provides IDPs and receiving communities with income-generating activities, health and education, and institutional and community strengthening

Working with the Colombian Institute for Family Welfare, IOM is also helping former child combatants who have been demobilized from the armed conflict since March 2001. To date, this US funded programme has helped more than 1,300 children through a network of 22 centres throughout the country. This programme also provides support to ex-combatants who belong to indigenous and Afro-Colombian ethnic minorities.

Sixty-one "Peace Strengthening" programmes also support ethnic minorities and other excluded groups and provide assistance to victims of conflict, such as victims of antipersonnel land mines. Over the past three years, this programme has directly benefited more than 371,000 people in the country. The Program is funded by USAID.

The IOM US and Dutch funded counter-trafficking programmes provide reintegration assistance to victims of trafficking and carries out awareness programmes to warn potential victims of the dangers of irregular migration and of trafficking. Between June 2001 and July 2003, IOM has assisted 538 victims of trafficking.

For al of its work, the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia awarded IOM the ''Medalla del Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad - Servicios Distinguidos Categoría Especial''. The DAS is a goverment entity that is directly under the responsibility of the President of the Republic and has in its structure, the Direction of Migration. IOM supports the Direction of Migration with technical cooperation in various fields - migration data, South American Migration Conference, amongst others.