The assessment, carried out in cooperation with local government authorities in Kutaisi, Batumi, Khelvachauri and Kobuleti indicates there is an immediate need for folding beds, refrigerators, gas stoves, water boilers and hygiene kits to supplement the assistance so far delivered.

According to the local authorities, some 2,200 internally displaced people in Imereti region will require long term assistance, as they will not be able to return to their former homes in Abkhazia’s Kodori Valley and the South Ossetia conflict area in the foreseeable future.

In Batumi, the number of recently displaced individuals requiring long term assistance has now dropped to a few hundred, as many displaced families have returned to Gori and surrounding villages or relocated elsewhere.

IOM in western Georgia will in the coming days begin the procurement and distribution of prioritized relief items.

In Tbilisi, IOM’s daily distributions of relief kits to vulnerable displaced families sheltering in collective centres was suspended on

Monday as thousands of protestors took to the streets of the capital to protest against Russia’s actions.

The distribution of non food relief items to people affected by the conflict will resume later today with the support of local volunteers deployed in many of the city’s collective centres.

”With the school year about to resume, there is increasing pressure to find viable shelter alternatives for thousands of displaced people still living in cramped schools and kindergartens, which often still lack basic facilities,” says IOM’s Marc Hulst.

“At the request of the Georgian government and in coordination with our UN partners, IOM is looking at the possibility of procuring prefabricated shelters to house some of the displaced,” he adds.

Other options under consideration include the provision of construction materials and offering housing subsidies to vulnerable displaced families.

As part of the UN Flash Appeal, IOM asked for 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 people in Tbilisi and in other parts of Georgia.

To date, IOM has received US$ 100,000 from the Slovak government to provide non food and shelter assistance to vulnerable families displaced from South Ossetia.