IOM Director General William Lacy Swing arrives in Pakistan as IOM
scales up its human and financial resources towards the south of
the country where many more low-lying areas are inundated by raging
floodwaters causing further destruction and displacement.

During his short trip, the IOM Director General will meet senior
government officials including the President of Pakistan and visit
flood-affected areas to express solidarity with the Pakistani
people.

"IOM reassures its commitment to the government and the people
of Pakistan in these testing times, that we will continue our
relief operations until those affected by the floods return to
their normal lives", says IOM Director General William Lacy
Swing.

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"These floods are one of the most extreme humanitarian disasters
in living memory. My gratitude and admiration goes out to all those
humanitarian workers, including the IOM staff, who are making
untiring and dedicated efforts to help flood victims in immediate
need of support," Director General Swing adds.

IOM continues to scale up its relief operations in Pakistan's
southern regions with reports of more areas in Hyderabad, Jamshoro,
Dadu and Thatta districts in Sindh Province being submerged. This
includes plans to open another humanitarian hub in Hyderabad, to
expedite the delivery of shelter and non-food items including
blankets and kitchen sets to the flood-affected families in Sindh.
Over the next three weeks, IOM also will be handling near daily
in-kind donation flights from the governments of the United States
and United Kingdom, full of critically needed shelter material
which will be immediately diverted to Punjab and Sindh.

This week alone, IOM is receiving 11 in-kind donation flights
from USAID's Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)
including 47,225 blankets, 160,750 jerry cans, 13,000 plastic
sheets, 7 mobile water treatment units and 40 inflatable boats
which will assist flood victims in the coming days. The UK
Department for International Development (DFID) is sending another
cargo flight to Islamabad with 1,538 shelter-grade plastic sheeting
rolls.

To date, IOM has procured from local market 8,450 tents, 11,400
blankets, 17,400 kitchen sets, 16,400 plastic sheets, 442,500
meters of rope, and 17,000 jerry cans which are currently being
distributed among the flood-affected families in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. Further procurement of relief items
is under way with financial support from the governments of the US,
UK, Canada, Sweden and Japan.

The Pakistan operations are being supported by IOM missions
worldwide who have sent a core of experienced personnel to expedite
IOM relief operations, with further human resources lined up in
coming weeks. The Pakistani Government has facilitated the critical
movement of personnel by agreeing to issue visas on arrival for the
relief workers.

The Emergency Shelter Cluster, of more than 40 humanitarian
partners coordinated by IOM, has delivered over 115,000 tents and
88,500 plastic sheets benefiting 159,500 families. The cluster's
procurement pipeline which includes more than 114,500 tents and
521,500 plastic sheets, will assist a further 375,500 families in
coming days. Still there are more than 642,000 families which will
require shelter support.

According to the National Disaster Management Authority's
estimates, at least 1.2 million houses have either been damaged or
destroyed by the catastrophic floods in Pakistan.

For more information on IOM's activities in Pakistan and flood
relief pictures, please go to: "paragraph-link-no-underline" href="/jahia/Jahia/pakistan" target=
"_blank" title="">http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/pakistan.

For additional information please contact:

Saleem Rehmat

IOM Islamabad

Tel: +92.3008560341

E-mail: "mailto:srehmat@iom.int">srehmat@iom.int

or

Chris Lom

Tel: +66.819275215

E-mail: "mailto:clom@iom.int">clom@iom.int