IOM Organizes Safe Return from Cameroon of Chadian Migrants Displaced from CAR

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 25, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- Thousands of Chadian migrants fleeing violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) have been stranded in Cameroon since the beginning of 2014.

This week, IOM Cameroon and Chad completed the return by road of almost 500 Chadian migrants from the town of Garoua Boulai, Cameroon, to the newly established temporary site in the village of Djako located 40 km from the town of Moundou in Chad.

Two more IOM convoys will bring home an estimated 2,000 Chadian migrants still stranded on the Cameroon-CAR border in the coming weeks.

The operation was carried out at the request of the Chadian government and was made possible with funding from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The Chadian Embassy in Cameroon issued the returnees with travel documents prior to their return home.

The temporary site in Djako was set up by humanitarian agencies including IOM, WFP, UNICEF and IRC. The Chadian government allocated the land. IOM is responsible for the provision of shelter and site management, WFP for nutrition, and UNICEF for water, sanitation and hygiene. IRC will provide medical services.

The families now in Djako not only experienced atrocities in CAR, but also endured tough living conditions while in transit on the Cameroon border. They will need emergency and post-emergency aid to meet their basic needs while durable solutions are identified. This will include psychosocial support, medical care, food, non-food relief items, water, sanitation, livelihoods, as well as family member tracing and reunification.

“IOM and our humanitarian partners have been able to help migrants arriving back in Chad thanks to funding from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and others. But the remaining funds are only enough to kick start this new operation,” says IOM Chad Chief of Mission Dr. Qasim Sufi.

“We need considerable additional funding to continue to provide the necessary humanitarian aid to Chadians who are continuing to return to the country,” he adds.

Since December 2013, the CAR crisis has displaced hundreds of thousands of people internally and across borders, notably into neighboring Chad and Cameroon. They have included nationals of both countries, CAR nationals and nationals of third countries.

As of 21 July, IOM had registered more than 106,000 arriving in Chad from CAR either independently or with the assistance of the Chadian government and IOM by road and air.

This influx led to the reactivation in May 2014 of the Shelter-Camp Coordination Camp Management (CCCM) cluster led by UNHCR and IOM. The aim of the cluster is to manage both transit and temporary sites established to accommodate the new arrivals and to provide them with emergency assistance prior to their reintegration in the country.