Guatemala – The UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) has allocated USD 459,000 to IOM to distribute non-food relief items including plastic sheeting, roofing materials and heaters to 1,500 Guatemalan families living in emergency shelters since the earthquake that hit the departments of San Marcos and Quetzaltenango, near the border with Mexico, on November 7th.

IOM and its partners, Cooperazione Internazionale (COOPI) and Mercy Corps, will also distribute kitchen kits, including stoves, pots and pans, plates and cutlery, as well as tools to repair damaged homes. Families will also receive winter kits containing mattresses, blankets and warm ponchos.

“The earthquake affected some 60,000 people and damaged some 5,000 houses in the area, which, because of poverty and lack of access, is home to large numbers of labour migrants. Roughly half of the Guatemalans forcibly returned from the USA last year came from the area impacted by the earthquake. We therefore need to get aid to these people quickly to stabilize these communities,” explained Delbert Field, IOM Chief of Mission in Guatemala.  
 
The latest figures confirm that 118,838 households in the department of San Marcos have a family member abroad, placing it second to the department of Guatemala, which includes the capital.   San Marcos hosts the greatest number of migrants returned each year – on average 10,000 – from the United States and Mexico.

Other IOM programmes in Guatemala provide assistance to returnees and victims of human trafficking, as well as managing temporary labour migration programmes.

For more information, please contact  

Danilo Valladares
IOM Guatemala
Tel. +502.23140000 Ext. 223
Email: dvalladares@iom.int