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Add to Preferred SourcesSix hundred vulnerable children in Ethiopia are the target of a new partnership between the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Save the Children.
Over the next 18 months, 400 migrant returnees and 200 other vulnerable children will be earmarked for assistance in eight sub-regions in East Hararghe, Oromia and Amhara’s North Wollo Zones.
This is the fourth such partnership under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration targeting minors in migration-prone regional states in Ethiopia.
IOM already is collaborating with three other local organizations to reach vulnerable children: the Mary Joy Development Association, Facilitator for Change and the Forum on Sustainable Child Empowerment.
Ultimately over 1000 children will be reached through these four partnerships.
To date, IOM has voluntary returned and provided reintegration assistance to 5,000 Ethiopian migrants under the EU-IOM Joint Initiative, out of whom 20 percent are children. Some 1300 children have received needs-based reintegration assistance since 2017.
Children on the move are a particularly vulnerable group, with the Horn of Africa experiencing significant numbers. Ethiopia, which is Africa’s second-most populous country, accounts for the largest migrant movements in the region that also incorporates Djibouti, Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan.
From January to July 2019, IOM’s drop-in facilities for stranded migrants in the Horn of Africa – also known as Migrant Response Centres – registered 1,224 minors, amounting to 18% of all registrations. Fifty-nine percent of these children were unaccompanied and 41% accompanied (unaccompanied minors are usually between 15-17, while younger children are usually accompanied).
Since May 2019, IOM assisted the voluntary humanitarian return of 2742 migrants who were detained in a stadium in Yemen. 22 chartered flights brought the returnees to Ethiopia of which 1180 are minors.
The EU-IOM Joint Initiative facilitates orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration management through the development of rights-based and development-focused procedures and processes on protection and sustainable reintegration. The project, funded under the European Union Trust Fund for Africa covers and has been set up in close cooperation with a total of 26 African countries.
Original source: IOM
Published on 20 August 2019