Horn of Africa / Training Provides Coastguards with Skills to Identify and Protect Vulnerable Migrants
MOGADISHU, Somalia, November 26, 2010/African Press Organization (APO)/ — IOM Press Briefing Notes
Coastguards from Somalia’s Puntland, Yemen and Djibouti will benefit from an innovative IOM training programme to equip them with the necessary skills to protect and assist irregular migrants and asylum-seekers travelling at great risk through Somaliland, Puntland and Djibouti en route to Yemen.
The Japanese-funded initiative will provide 60 coastguards with comprehensive training on rescue-at- sea, on the rights of migrants and on the needs of particularly vulnerable groups such as victims of trafficking.
In addition, the programme will provide coast guards with much needed life-saving kits, life jackets, buoys, torches and emergency blankets to enhance their response at sea.
“The continuing lack of adequate search and rescue facilities makes it difficult for coast guards in the Gulf of Aden to rescue people in distress. IOM hopes that the training and the provision of equipment will improve both the emergency assistance to migrants and the protection afforded them,” says Odile Robert, IOM’s Mixed Migration Officer in Djibouti.
The two-day-trainings will take place for Puntland and Djibouti coastguards between 27-28 November in Djibouti and between 10-11 December for their counterparts in Yemen.
Every year, tens of thousands of mainly Ethiopian and Somali migrants and asylum-seekers make the hazardous journey from their place of origin across the Horn of Africa and the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and beyond. These individuals, driven by political unrest and extreme poverty face not only dangers at sea but also physical risks, harassment and discrimination during their journey on land.
This workshop is part of a broader IOM programme to strengthen the protection of, and emergency assistance to, irregular migrants and asylum-seekers from Somalia and Ethiopia travelling through the region.
SOURCE
International Office of Migration (IOM)
