Migrants held at Trik al Seka detention centre in Tripoli, which Mohammed Abdiker visited in March. Photo: IOM / Leonard Doyle

Placing People at the Centre of Our Response
By Mohammed Abdiker, Director of Operations and Emergencies for IOM, the UN Migration Agency
Twitter: @AbdikerM

Day after day, I continue to be struck by the dignity and positivity of people, and their ability to cope, in what is often the direst of circumstances – most recently in Libya, Yemen, Iraq and Nigeria. Every person experiences the impact of crises differently, when exposed to risks due to their sex, age, gender identity, ethnicity, and disability; or when enduring the impact of family separation, or the lack of access to resources, among many other hardships. In the last few months alone, I have witnessed the deplorable conditions of detention centers, as well as the many challenges displaced people and refugees face in displacement camps and camp-like settings. I have met with migrants, displaced people and affected communities. I have met women, men, girls and boys. Every single person I have met, continues to demonstrate incredible courage and hope for the future in the face of extreme adversity. I can’t help thinking, however, are we doing enough to address their needs?

The objective of all humanitarian and development actors is to support states to ensure that everyone’s rights are upheld and fulfilled despite a crisis situation. Protection is ultimately ensuring that, despite the crisis context, individuals have the ability and agency to fulfill their rights in accordance with differing characteristics, capacities, needs and aspirations. Increasingly, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), the primary mechanism for inter-agency coordination of humanitarian assistance–of which IOM is a member–is committing to placing protection at the centre of every actor’s efforts. Each member builds on its own mandate and vantage point to protect crisis-affected populations.

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IOM child-friendly space. Photo: IOM

Protecting Children in Yemen

Chissey Mueller, Migrant Assistance and Protection Officer with IOM, the UN Migration Agency in Yemen, talks to us about child protection in Yemen in a Q&A.

Question: What is the situation of children in Yemen these days?

Answer: Even before the conflict, Yemen was the poorest country in the Middle East and struggled to address a number of protection issues for Yemeni and migrant children. Child begging and child labour was really visible, particularly on the streets. 

The conflict has exacerbated the existing child protection issues, and added new ones inside Yemen.

In addition, Yemen’s migration flows consist of large numbers of unaccompanied migrant children from the Horn of Africa who aim to transit Yemen to go to Saudi Arabia.  There’s also been a well-established pattern of unaccompanied Yemeni child migrants who cross irregularly into Saudi Arabia to work or carry contraband. 

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IOM is building capacity to protect migrants and displaced people from sexual exploitation and abuse. Photo: IOM / Amanda Nero

Partnerships in Practice: Building Capacity to Protect Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

Collaboration between agencies on sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) prevention and response is a necessary part of the fight to eradicate this scourge from all of our operations. IOM, the UN Migration Agency, like many other agencies, has committed to participating in joint efforts in the fight against SEA. As a global leader in protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), IOM is working with partners to share good practices and lessons learned to support these joint in-country PSEA initiatives. The goal is to work with PSEA Networks to offer context-specific guidance on how all the agencies working in their response site can collaborate on SEA prevention and response so that PSEA activities are effective and people are protected.

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Download IOM Protection Portfolio here 

Preventing and Mitigating Gender-Based Violence. Read more

Identifying Protection Concerns for Humanitarian Response in Iraq. Read more

IOM will be co-leading with the NGO Heartland Alliance and UNHCR a Global Protection Cluster Task-Team aimed at enhancing anti-human trafficking work and coordination mechanisms within the humanitarian system.

For more information please visit www.globalprotectioncluster.org

IOM launches reference check-list with special measures for the humanitarian evacuation of migrant children. Download here

IOM is part of the inter-agency working group on unaccompanied and separated children. The group has just issued a new field handbook which provides practical guidance on working with unaccompanied and separated children. To see the handbook click here and the toolkit here.

“i am a migrant” is part of the UN TOGETHER initiative that promotes respect, safety and dignity for everyone who has left home in search of a better life. More here


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"How wonderful would it be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation would come along with more equality and social inclusion. How wonderful would it be, while we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters orbiting around us." – Pope Francis. More here.