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Migrants, mostly from Niger and Pakistan, load their baggage onto the IOM ship, Red Star I, in Libya during the April 2011 evacuation. Photo: Nicole Tung/IOM 2011
Living with Vulnerability: Preparing Migrants for Crisis
By Mohammed Abdiker, UN Migration Agency’s Director of Operations and Emergencies
Switzerland — As resilient as I know migrant communities to be, they can still easily beamong the worst affected by natural disasters, extreme violence or armed conflict. They have certain heightened vulnerabilities specifically because they are migrants. Whether in cities or in rural settings, migrants frequently fall through the cracks of national and international crisis warning systems and emergency response. They are more often than not less prepared than their neighbours and are more exposed to hazards. These factors add together to make migrants less able to cope with and recover from the impact of disasters — leaving them extremely at risk of being “left behind” in terms of stabilization, recovery and development.
Preparing New York City’s Diverse Communities for Emergencies
Cities thrive because of their vibrant and diverse communities. In many migrant communities, factors such as culture, language, immigration status, and community isolation contribute to higher levels of vulnerability to the effects of emergencies. Disseminating relevant, culturally-appropriate emergency preparedness information to migrant populations is critical to building resilience.
Medical staff check the condition of stranded Ethiopian migrants. IOM had helped 3,478 vulnerable Ethiopian migrants stranded by the conflict in Yemen, including 229 medical cases, to return home. Photo: IOM
The Importance of Needs Assessments to Assist Vulnerable Migrants in Crisis
The ongoing conflict in Yemen has induced large-scale displacement of the Yemeni population, and affected thousands of migrants in the country or those arriving to the shores of Yemen albeit of the ongoing conflict. Although the civil war has ravaged Yemen since 2015, the country still receives a monthly average of 10,000 irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa.
Challenges in Implementing Measures to Adequately Protect Migrants in Emergencies in Mexico
In 2014, Mexico established its first public policy on migration, in which civil society actors, academics, governmental authorities and the migrants themselves played a key role in identifying the needs to be addressed and the rights to be upheld under the new policy. In this spirit, a cooperation with the UN Migration Agency (IOM), to implement the Reducing the Vulnerability of Migrants in Emergencies project, was established.
Migrants in Disaster Risk Reduction
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Special Measures for the Evacuation of Migrant Children: A Reference Checklist
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Tools
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“Completely open borders are not sensible but it is suicidal to keep everyone out. The costs of barriers are enormous. The massive losses to smugglers are avoidable.” – Eugenio Ambrosi, Director of IOM’s Regional Office for the European Union. Read more here.
Migration in the News
- UN News reported on the 10th annual Global Forum on Migration and Development in which senior United Nations officials have underlined the need for safe, orderly and regular migration options to ensure that people are not forced to undertake arduous and dangerous journeys in search for a better future.
- Reuters, Voice of America, The Guardian and Irish Times reported that Italy has appealed to the European Union for help in taking in African migrants, even raising the possibility of closing its ports to humanitarian rescue ships to pressure EU partners.
- Greek Reporter said that 93 Greek public schools are providing education to 2,500 refugee children, under a program funded by the EU Humanitarian Aid Department.
- IANS/AKI reported that a rescue ship docked in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Wednesday with more than 600 migrants on board as well as the body of a newborn baby, Italian officials said.
- Newsweek reported that Mafia members in Sicily are teaming up with a Nigerian gang to run sex rings on the Italian island.
- Nigeria’s News Express reported that over 2,000 Nigerians are languishing in private prisons in Libya.
- RT reported that IOM has launched a new initiative aimed at rescuing migrants as they traverse the harsh desert terrain of central North Africa, aimed at assisting highly endangered people struggling to reach the Libyan coast en route to Europe.
- TeleSUR/Newsweek reported that Defend Europe, a far-right anti-immigrant group, is raising funds to stop sea vessels carrying Libyan refugees en route to Europe, in a campaign intended to prevent migrants from entering the continent.
- Newsday reported that Zimbabwe’s rankings in human trafficking have improved this year, moving from Tier 3 to Tier 2, a United States diplomat told journalists in Harare yesterday.
- Haiti Libre reported that the first Border Resource Center in Haiti has opened in Anse-à-Pîtres.
- Euractiv ran an op-ed by IOM’s Eugenio Ambrosi, who noted that instead of responding to today’s migration challenges from a position of strength, Europe has reacted in fear – and this has to change.
- Dhaka Tribune interviewed IOM Chief of Mission Sarat Dash on the lure of illegal migration and what the UN Migration Agency is doing to combat it.
Trending on the Internet
- Australia’s ABC reported on the Inspire Tasmania program, through which migrant and refugee performers showcase their culture to their adopted communities in Tasmania, and Tasmanians are given the opportunity to learn more about different cultures.
- The Guardian reported that 11 men have gone on trial over the deaths of 71 migrants found in an abandoned truck in Austria nearly two years ago, in one of the most disturbing cases marking Europe’s migration crisis.
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