Managing Migration for the Benefit of All
Georgia – IOM Appeals for Funds, Mobilizes Staff
IOM is appealing to international donors for an initial US$ 1, 9 million to provide emergency logistical support, shelter and non-food assistance to tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Tbilisi and in other parts of Georgia over the next six months.
The funding request, part of the UN’s Flash Appeal, will allow IOM staff in Georgia to provide emergency ground transportation to support on-going WFP food distributions, and to distribute shelter materials and Non Food Items (NFIs) to hundreds of particularly vulnerable families who have been displaced by the recent armed conflict.
IOM is currently mobilizing some 20 staff in Tbilisi, Kutasi and Batumi, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, to support data collection on the newly displaced and to assist in the distribution of emergency assistance to the IDPs in need.
“IDPs are currently sheltering either with relatives and friends or increasingly moving into hundreds of collective centres. The influx of displaced is considerable and the process fluid. All these factors, together with limited transportation, communications and access to certain areas complicates the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable, including female headed households, children, the sick and the elderly,” says IOM’s Sophie Kharashvili. “Our challenge is to quickly identify the most vulnerable among the displaced to ensure they receive the assistance they desperately need.”
Based on the number of people registered by the Georgian authorities, some 128,700 people have been displaced in Georgia during the recent conflict, including some 81,000 in Tbilisi. This figure does not include the estimated 30,000 people believed to have sought refuge in North Ossetia, Russian Federation.
For more information, please contact Khatuna Didbaridze at IOM Georgia, Tel: + 995 32 25 22 16; Email: kdidbaridze@iom.geIOM Worldwide Press Briefing Notes
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