South Africa / IOM Assists Vulnerable Zimbabwean Migrants to Return Home Voluntarily / IOM is assisting a group of 56 vulnerable Zimbabweans stranded at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg to return home voluntarily.
PRETORIA, South Africa, July 10, 2009/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes
Since IOM began providing return assistance in May 2009, IOM missions in South Africa and Zimbabwe have assisted 151 persons, including 76 adults and 20 infants and unaccompanied minors.
A significant number of migrants, mainly from Zimbabwe, started seeking refuge at the Central Methodist Church when violent attacks on foreign nationals erupted in May 2008. Since then, the church has been a sanctuary for more than 1,000 stranded migrants at a time, including minors. They are huddled in and around the church, with poor ventilation, limited sleeping space, and unhygienic conditions. A number of raids have been conducted by the police, resulting in the arrest and detention of some of the migrants.
Two recent assessments conducted by IOM in Limpopo province, where Zimbabwean migrants first arrive, indicate that they travel to South Africa principally for economic reasons, particularly in search of work.
Those who desire to return home are mainly pushed by economic hardship and/or lack of accommodation in South Africa with some feeling more optimistic about the economic situation in Zimbabwe. Others are either keen to reunite with their family or cite health problems as their reason for wishing to return.
“IOM’s humanitarian return assistance is offered only to those migrants who wish to return home voluntarily,” explains Yukiko Kumashiro, IOM Project Development Officer.
IOM’s help to these Zimbabwean migrants, funded by the US State Department’s Bureau for Populations, Refugees and Migration (PRM), includes fitness for travel health checks, arranges travel documentation and transport, and provides nurses and escorts where necessary. In Zimbabwe, IOM receives the migrants at the point of arrival in Beitbridge and provides them with wet-feeding and onward transportation to their home towns or villages.
SOURCE
International Office of Migration (IOM)
