Geneva — Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, women internally displaced by conflict or disasters already faced significant barriers in accessing job opportunities, healthcare and education. Public health restrictions imposed worldwide, moreover, increased many of the vulnerabilities and protection risks faced by women, girls, elderly persons and persons with disabilities.
Groups-at-risk often have less access to lifesaving information and less opportunities to participate in camp-life. Although women and girls frequently comprise the majority of most displaced populations, their participation in decision-making traditionally has been minimal.
Yet in some camps, or camp-like settings hosting thousands of displaced people, women have begun taking…
Geneva — The month of March brings a call to action for accelerating gender parity and presents an opportunity to celebrate women and girls. Therefore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the roles women have played and how they have been impacted is essential.
IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) has been collecting information on the number and types of COVID-19 restrictions around the world, the types of people affected by such restrictions, while setting out to understand the impact COVID-19 has had on mobility on particular groups.
Gender has been an important variable in analyzing the differing impacts COVID-19 mobility restrictions…
Before COVID-19 swept the world with its catastrophic health, social and economic consequences, tuberculosis (TB) was the number one killer among all infectious diseases. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 4,000 people continue to die each day from TB and close to 28,000 people contract the disease on a daily basis.
On World Tuberculosis Day, we interview Olga Gorbacheva who runs the Global Health Assessment Programme for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the Organization’s longest-standing services for migrants and refugees.
Why is it important to talk about tuberculosis in the context of migration?
TB is…
Why equitable inclusion of all migrants in COVID-19 vaccine plans is essential
COVID-19 has demonstrated that viruses not only know no borders, but they also do not discriminate based on immigration status. Failing to take migrants into account in our vaccination efforts would hamper the effectiveness of these campaigns and make it difficult to end the pandemic.
In less than three months, over 360 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered across more than 100 countries. The pace of inoculation is picking up day by day and the world is hopeful that the light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel is within sight.
The success of national vaccination campaigns depends on…
Supporting the Next Generation of Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Development Planning in Madagascar
Under the “Mainstreaming Migration into International Cooperation and Development” (MMICD) initiative, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO), IOM has been working since early 2019 with national and local urban development stakeholders in Madagascar to mainstream migration into every stage of urban development planning.
According to UN-Habitat and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, over half of the world’s population live in cities today. It is estimated that three million people around the world are moving to cities every week. The current urban population of 3.9 billion is expected to grow…
A tale of high expectations, promising results and a long road ahead
by Jasper Tjaden, Andres Arau, Muertizha Nuermaimaiti, Imge Cetin, Eduardo Acostamadiedo, Marzia Rango.
Act 1 — High Expectations
“Data is the new oil,” they say. ‘Big Data’ is even bigger than that. The “data revolution” will contribute to solving societies’ problems and help governments adopt better policies and run more effective programs. In the migration field, digital trace data are seen as a potentially powerful tool to improve migration management processes (visa applications; asylum decision and geographic allocation of asylum seeker, facilitating integration, “smart borders” etc.).1
Forecasting migration is one particular area where big data seems to excite data nerds (like us) and policymakers alike…
Baidoa — Baidoa, a major economic centre in southwestern Somalia, has seen rapid population growth as displacement driven by conflict and climate change has greatly accelerated in recent years. In just the last decade, it is estimated that Baidoa’s population has doubled.
The increased influx of forcibly displaced people arriving to the urban area has made it challenging for humanitarian partners to reach all those who need support. Most displaced families continue to live in makeshift shelters (“buuls”) made from discarded clothes, cartons, and sticks, which offer little protection against heavy rainfall or sweltering heat.
In comparison to the rest…
Mogadishu- Three years ago, 67-year-old Omar made the difficult decision to leave his home in Ethiopia after his family’s livestock perished following a prolonged drought. His situation was made worse by inter clan clashes, which continue to plague the Somalia region of Ethiopia.
Omar arrived in Somalia in 2017, crossing the border on foot. Today, he lives with his daughter and her four children at Kabasa, one of the most impoverished camps for displaced persons in in Doolow, a small town in Gedo region in the southern part of Somalia at the border with Ethiopia.
He is forced to spend…
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…
IOM - UN Migration
Official account of IOM, the UN Migration Agency.
