Managing Migration for the Benefit of All
Georgia - Needs of Displaced Persons Remain Considerable Despite Some Returns
While organized and spontaneous returns of Internally Displaced Person (IDPs) from the Georgian capital Tbilisi to the central region of Gori have continued over the past few days, tens of thousands of vulnerable displaced persons continue to shelter in hundreds of grim collective centres where they remain in constant need of humanitarian assistance.
“We continue on a daily basis to distribute essential non-food assistance, targeting the most vulnerable displaced families,” says IOM’s Marc Hulst. “But the needs remain considerable and the challenge daunting, both logistically because the centres are so numerous and scattered but also because more families displaced from South Ossetia and conflict-affected areas are still arriving in the capital.”
Over the past three days, IOM staff with the help of local volunteers has distributed more than a thousand families, child and baby kits containing mattresses, gas cookers, bed sheets, towels, soap, tooth paste, washing powder and basin, toilet paper, diapers and baby food to an additional 495 conflict- affected individuals.
IOM has also deployed additional staff in the western city of Kutaisi and in the Black Sea port of Batumi to further assess the needs of recently internally displaced families and to assist in the on-going distribution of basic humanitarian assistance.
“With the school year beginning in September and the on-coming winter, there is an urgent need to provide shelter and building materials to help displaced families move out of schools and kindergartens, which they currently occupy,” says IOM’s Marc Hulst.
IOM’s humanitarian programme for Georgia has received US$ 100,000 from the Slovak government. The funding will provide non food and shelter assistance to vulnerable families who have been displaced from South Ossetia.
As part of the UN Flash Appeal, IOM required an initial US$ 1, 9 million to provide emergency logistical support, shelter and non-food assistance over the next six months to tens of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Tbilisi and in other parts of Georgia.
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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