Since its inception, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has been working to improve immunization coverage for migrants and forcibly displaced persons across the world.

“Vaccines are one of our most important and cost-effective tools to prevent outbreaks, protect individuals, and therefore keep entire communities safe and healthy,” says IOM Director General António Vitorino. …

An estimated 30,000 migrants in vulnerable situations were stranded in West and Central Africa in May, as COVID-19 began to spread in the region.

“Migrant in vulnerable situations” is a term often used, but is the meaning really understood? Why are they considered vulnerable? Why do they need immediate assistance?

Based on its unique field experience, IOM recognizes operational challenges and protection gaps in identifying, protecting and assisting migrants who are not entitled to international protection as refugees, stateless persons or victims of human trafficking, but who nonetheless require protection and assistance. In order to respond to this challenge, IOM has developed a Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability model, an innovative tool to holistically assess migrants’ vulnerabilities and capabilities. This approach looks beyond individuals. It analyses factors at the household/family, community and structural levels that contribute to vulnerability or, conversely, those that contribute to resilience, mitigate vulnerability, reduce harm and inform comprehensive and sustainable solutions. …

In Nigeria, COVID-19 has posed great challenges to returnees. Among those worst affected are people with mental health and psychosocial needs.

Movement restrictions imposed by the Nigerian government have made assistance to returnees and their families particularly challenging. Due to these restrictions, returnees with psychological concerns face challenges in accessing dedicated mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services. Moreover, as economic activities came to a halt, caregivers observed symptoms of relapse and deterioration of their beneficiaries’ psychosocial wellbeing.

Under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration, a COVID-19 assessment was conducted via phone in the West and Central Africa region. In Nigeria, responses from over 100 returnees were collected in Edo and Delta States, and more than 90 per cent reported that their emotional wellbeing had deteriorated since the crisis began. …

Volunteers make a difference in the lives of others, without asking for anything in return. Read about these three IOM volunteers and how they reach others in time of need.

Standing up for peace by Jacob Gnammou

Tropical Cyclone Harold caused extensive destruction after making landfall as a category 4 storm in the Republic of Fiji on 8 April 2020.

Since then, International Organization for Migration’s partnership with the Fijian NGO Live and Learn has supported the ongoing rebuilding efforts by responding to the shelter needs of some of the most vulnerable households affected by Tropical Cyclone Harold (‘TC Harold’) in Vatulele island and Tailevu province (Western and Central Divisions respectively).

To address the shelter, water and sanitation and food security needs of 200,000 people affected, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) contributed USD 100,000 to the IOM’s response. …

Organizing a basketball camp at a time when COVID-19 has forced the suspension of so many sporting activities across the globe was no easy feat.

In early October however, players from across Niger and ten migrants hosted at IOM’s transit centers, aged 13 to 19, took on the challenge and participated in this year’s edition of Hoops4Kids, in Niamey.

In 1993, Yacouba Sangaré was playing for Niger’s national basketball team, which gave him the opportunity to relocate to the Unites States. From his new home, he founded the non-profit organization Hoops4Kids as a means of giving back to his community. Hoops4Kids has since sought to provide at-risk youth the opportunity to develop their athletic and life skills through its basketball programs in both the U.S. …

Migrants and mobile populations face many obstacles in accessing essential healthcare services. These include language barriers, a dearth of migrant-inclusive health policies, inaccessibility of services or irregular immigration status. In addition, many migrants live in overcrowded spaces or makeshift shelters, with poor sanitation and hygiene services, which increases their vulnerability to poor health outcomes. These challenges affect the well- being of migrants, and undermine societies by limiting the positive contribution of migrants and migration to our societies, and towards the realisation of global health, social and economic development goals. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid this bare in the starkest terms.

Since its inception, the International Organization for Migration has considered health a core component of all migration or population mobility issues, from migration and development, climate and environmental change, and disease control and prevention, to global health security, occupational safety, disaster risk reduction and foreign policy. In 2019, 1,300 IOM staff members across 110 country offices implemented nearly 200 health-related projects. They conducted over 3.6 …

Obock, Djibouti — Abdourazak, Tajir, and Mohamed are Ethiopian migrants who survived a vicious attack by people smugglers last Thursday (15/10) while crossing the Gulf of Aden from Yemen to Djibouti which left 12 people dead and an unknown number of others missing, the second such incident in recent weeks.

Most of the passengers on board the boat were trying to reach the small Horn of Africa nation has failed to get to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where they had hoped to find jobs or to escape the violence and chaos in Yemen.

All paid smugglers to get on the boat, having used their life savings or borrowed money from family members back home to get to Yemen. …