Friday 22 August 2003

Press Briefing Notes
Friday 22 August 2003
Spokesperson: Niurka Piñeiro

1. IRAQ - IOM Reviews Programme and Staffing
2. TUNISIA - Students Help Create Tourism Jobs at Roman Site
3. ETHIOPIA - Training of Trainers on Trafficking, HIV/AIDS and Girls' Education

IRAQ - IOM Reviews Programme and Staffing - IOM is reviewing its Iraq programme and the staffing of its Iraq offices following Tuesday's truck bomb attack on the UN's headquarters in Baghdad.

IOM's offices are a 15-minute drive from the UN offices and no current IOM staff were hurt in the blast.

The review, which is likely to result in a temporary reduction in staffing levels, is based on the premise that humanitarian workers may now be viewed by terrorists in Iraq as legitimate "soft" targets. IOM's Iraq programme currently comprises the following projects:

Community Development: IOM's Iraq Transition Initiative (ITI) addresses post-conflict community needs. The US$8 million ITI programme, funded by USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, identifies and finances quick impact community improvement projects. The projects include the rehabilitation of schools and health facilities. ITI focuses on the ability of local institutions to improve community infrastructure for the whole population, including returnees, and depends on Iraqi participation - both at local and national level - to prioritize needs.

Assisting Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): IOM, at the request of the UN and under the overall responsibility of the UNOHCI, is coordinating the efforts of NGOs and others in registering IDPs, managing camps, distributing non-food items, and eventually helping people to return to their homes in the south and centre of the country. Its network of 15 governorate focal point (GFP) NGOs use a standardized, IOM-designed framework, database and reporting structure to target assistance at the most vulnerable IDPs. Under the programme, which is supported by USAID's OFDA, IOM also provides limited funding to GFP NGOs to support their activities. To date, various sources have reported the existence of some 284,000 IDPs in the area.

Medical Evacuation and Rehabilitation: IOM's Medical Evacuation and Health Reconstruction Programme for Iraq (MEHRPI), has now helped to evacuate 77 patients selected by an international panel of doctors to eight countries for medical treatment unavailable in Iraq. The programme is a dual initiative combining 250 selective medical evacuations with help to re-build the country's dilapidated specialist health care system. It provides patients who cannot be treated inside Iraq with free hospital beds and treatment offered by foreign donor countries. To date, Austria, Bahrain, Greece, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States have all supported the programme, which is funded by Kuwait.

Registration of Demobilized Soldiers: IOM is currently setting up a project to survey and register up to 250,000 former Iraqi regular soldiers and 300,000 conscripts. The registration is the first step in a process to facilitate their re-training, referral to civilian jobs and reintegration into civil society. The project is funded by the US Department of Labour.

Assisted Voluntary Return: IOM is helping small numbers of Iraqis, those with special humanitarian reasons, to return home from abroad via Jordan. This assistance is provided through existing general return programmes in Europe and Asia/Pacific. In the past three months, IOM has assisted some 120 Iraqi migrants to return home.

Help for Third Country Nationals Fleeing Iraq: At the outset of the Iraq crisis, IOM's Iraq-related activities focused on helping Third Country Nationals (TCNs) fleeing Iraq into Jordan, Syria and Iran, to return to their countries of origin. To date, IOM has assisted nearly 5,000 to return home, mostly to Sudan and Egypt. Small numbers of TCNs continue to leave Iraq.

TUNISIA - Students Help Create Tourism Jobs at Roman Site - A second group of 18 students from Italy, Tunisia and Australia will begin this weekend a two-week summer camp at the Roman site of Haïdra, in the western region of Kasserine.

Participants will further support the enhancement and promotion of Haidra, one of the largest and richest archaeological sites in the country.

This initiative is part of IOM's Italian-funded PROCHE programme (Programme Pilote de Promotion du Développement des Zones d'Emigration en Tunisie). It aims to encourage local and foreign investment in less developed areas of Tunisia with the aim of creating jobs, generating income and improving the living conditions of local workers in areas with high emigration.

The PROCHE programme is part of a regional strategy supported by IOM to help countries of the Western Mediterranean (5+5) find effective and balanced solutions to regional migration issues of common concern.

A first group of 28 students from France, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia completed a two week camp in July during which their excavated part of the old Roman paved road, which linked the ancient capital of Carthage to Theveste, today's Tebessa in eastern Algeria.

This work is carried out in close cooperation with experts from the Tunisian Institute of National Heritage.

Students taking part in the camp will discuss migration challenges facing people in economically depressed Mahgreb regions like Kasserine. A round table on the benefits of regular migration will be organized in Haidra on 28 August, with the participation of IOM experts and local authorities.

A 40m2 painting on the "myths and realities of migration", which was completed by the first group of students will be displayed next week on Bourghiba Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares of Tunis as part of the forthcoming Euro-Mediterranean week.

For further information, contact Laurence Hart, IOM Tunis, Tel. 216 71 569 582, iomtunis@iom.int

ETHIOPIA - Training of Trainers on Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS and Girls' Education - The IOM office in Addis Ababa, working with the Women's Affairs Department of the Ministry of Education, is organizing a Training of Trainers on Human Trafficking, HIV/AIDS and Girls' Education.

The five-day training, beginning next Monday in Addis Ababa, is part of the IOM project ''Debterachin: Our Exercise Book" launched in November 2002.

The project aims to support the Ethiopian government's efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS, combat human trafficking within and/or from Ethiopia and to sensitize students in grades 7 to 10 on the issues of trafficking and HIV/AIDS while encouraging them to pursue their education, both in schools and within the informal sector.

IOM conducted a nationwide survey of more than 3,400 students in all the regions to identify the information needs of students in grades 7 to 10 about migrating for work, girls' education and HIV/AIDS. The survey revealed that 3 out of 5 students in junior and high schools in Ethiopia would like to leave the country in search of employment. The survey also confirmed that students were amenable to indulge in risky behavior despite knowing the risks of HIV/AIDS. The peak ages for HIV/ AIDS cases in Ethiopia are 20-29 for females and 25-34 for males. Given an average incubation period of 8 years, the infection usually occurs in the 12 to 21 age group in females.

The UNAIDS Epidemiological Fact Sheet on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Ethiopia for 2002, estimated that 2.1 million adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2001. The breakdown was reported as: 1.9 million adults aged 15 to 49, 1.1 million women aged 15 to 49, and 230,000 children aged 0 to 15.

The 35 participants are teachers as well as in and out- of- school youth who have previously received training by UNICEF on HIV/ AIDS and life skills. They will provide training to more than 400 junior high and high school teachers from all the regions in the country.

The ''Debterachin: Our Exercise Book" project including this training is funded by the United States Government.