IOM CHAD Influx from the Central African Republic (CAR) UPDATE 21 Feb 2014 Left: Migrants resting under tree shade because of the daily temperatures of 45 degrees in southern Chad (Moundou, IOM 2014 ) Right : Arrival of exhausted migrants at Moundou after a 3-day long journey from Cameroon (Moundou, IOM 2014 ) IOM is gearing up to evacuate Chadians and other third-country nationals (TCNs) stranded at the CAR/Cameroon border for several weeks with little or no assistance. Since December 2013, IOM has registered 70,913 evacuees who came from the CAR. 16,742 evacuees arrived in N Djamena, while 54,171 evacuees arrived in the south of Chad. 20% of them have continued their journey to their home communities. A road convoy with circa 2,000 evacuees on board is expected to arrive in Sido in the coming hours. To date, IOM has provided transport assistance to 12,960 returnees across Chad, and provide return assistance to TCNs. In Doyaba (Sarh) TC, evacuees are in very urgent need of both food and non-food Items. IOM s EMERGENCY RESPONSE IN CHAD Registration and profiling of Returnees, Refugees and Third-Country Nationals upon their arrival by air or by land and Displacement Tracking Matrix; Emergency health assistance: medical escorts during air evacuation; emergency medical services in the transit centres (TCs); referrals to hospitals and psychosocial care; temporary health facility at the Gaoui centre is functional; Identification and Referral of Unaccompanied and Separated Children to the Ministry of Social Action; of the CAR citizens to UNHCR; of TCNs to their Diplomatic Missions for identification and issuance of Travel Documents; Humanitarian transport for Chadians to home communities in Chad and for TCNs abroad; Maintenance of Transit Centre : water, sanitation, maintenance and security; Information sharing with humanitarian partners on influx, trends, urgent needs, response to the influx and impact in areas of high returns through OCHA.
REGISTRATION AND PROFILING Fig. 1: Cumulative number of evacuees over time IOM has registered 7,543 evacuees from the CAR from 13 to 18 February 2014. Since the beginning of the evacuations operation in the fourth week of December 2103, IOM has registered a total of 70,913 from the CAR in Chad. 16,742 evacuees arrived in N Djamena, by plane, on 86 flights (70 flights from the Government of Chad and 16 from IOM). 54,171 evacuees arrived in the south of Chad, by road: Gore (7,240 evacuees), Sido (12,609), Sarh (11,545), Doba (6,680), Mbitoye (13,359) and Moundou (2,738). 10,000 Chadians Migrants are reported to be stranded at the border with Cameroon after fleeing the violence in the CAR, 500 in Congo Brazzaville and 250 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fig. 2: Nationalities 54% of the evacuees are female. 69% are adults above 18; 31% are children (IOM registration sample of 30,000 evacuees). EMERGENCY HEALTH RESPONSE The current health and sanitation conditions in the Transit Centres (TCs) are of concern. This is due to limited health personnel as well as medicines. Moreover, the capacity and resources of the Public Health facilities are very limited especially for the management of chronic diseases (hypertension, diabetes, ) and mental health illnesses. The IOM s temporary Health Post in the Gaoui TC is functional; dozens of trauma or infected injuries, fever, gastroenteritis, malaria, conjunctivitis cases are treated daily. In the south, shortage of medicine and specialized medical staff and equipment has been noted in both Moundou and Gore TCs. IOM and the Chadian Red Cross joined forces to provide primary health care in TCs in Moundou. The IOM nurse conducts the post-arrival medical screening and fitness to travel prior to departure to their final destination. The capacity of the local hospital has been surpassed by the number of medical cases. In Mbitoye, all hospitals are reported to lack medicines and medical equipment to deal with the high number of complex medical cases. Now, medical services are provided by MSF. In Doba, the local health facilities are also reporting shortage of medical supplies. In Sido, two IOM nurses are providing post-arrival and pre-departure medical screening and primary health care services. 2
UNACCOMPANIED AND SEPARATED CHILDREN 12 unaccompanied or separated children (UASC) were identified in N Djamena from 12 to 18 February. Most of them have arrived on the Chadian government flights. IOM has facilitated the tracing and reunification with family members for 5 UASC. The Standard Operations Procedures on UASC that were initiated by IOM in coordination with UNICEF have been presented to the Child Protection Sub- Cluster for input from the concerned partners. PROTECTION IOM continues to provide psychosocial support and follow up to evacuees in TCS and hospitals. Other activities include support to highly vulnerable cases, tracing of family members and reunification in the TCs and the creation of a women s support group. TRANSPORT The Government continues the sensitization campaign of the evacuees in the TCs to return to their communities of origin in the country with the aim of decongesting the overcrowded TCs both in N Djamena and in the south. IOM transports returnees hosted in the TCs who voluntarily wish to continue their journey to their communities of origin in Chad. At the same time, IOM transports food ration for one month that is donated by World Food Programme (WFP) for each Returnee who is travelling to the final destination (FD) in the country. Travelling returnees receive a coupon for the food ration donated by WFP upon boarding IOM buses. When they arrive at their FDs, the Ministry of Action Social delivers the food rations transported by IOM on trucks. 21,292 evacuees out of 70,913 registered (30% of the total) have returned to their places of origin: 12,960 have been helped by IOM, 8,332 have returned by their own means. Fig. 3: Registered vs transported evacuees by IOM to FDs 3
According to the initial results of the IOM registration sample of 30,000 evacuees, 50% intend to continue their journey or to stay in N Djamena; 30% to Sahr; 13% to Am-Timan; 3% to Doba; 2% to Moundou; 1% to Abeche. IOM also facilitates return of TCNs to their countries of origin. The process includes liaison with the embassies for the identification and issuance of laisserpassers, as well as road or air transport to their home countries. These are nationals from Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, China, Ivory Coast, Mali, Sudan and Senegal. So far, IOM facilitated the return home of 70 TCNs from Cameroon, Senegal and Mali. Fig. 4 and 5 : Settlement intention of returnees from the CAR in Chad and Heat Map TRANSIT CENTRES MAINTENANCE AND UPGRAD- ING Out of the 70,913 registered evacuees, 49,621 (70% of the total) are still in the TCs. Sido Life in the overcrowded Sido TC is extremely difficult for the 8,000 people who lack latrines, food, water points to meet their basic needs. Temperatures rise as high as 45 to 50 degrees Celsius during the day with insufficient shelter. Two large convoys have arrived from Bangui this week, with several thousand evacuees onboard. In preparation of the arrival of such large numbers of returnees, IOM has reinforced the capacities of its registration and operation teams in Sido where it is registering all the arriving evacuees. IOM has also enlarged the registration site. Those who wish to continue their journey but have no means to do so are transported by IOM. Moundou In Moundou, registration has peaked at the beginning of the week to reach up to 2,738 persons while 1,865 evacuees are still staying in the TC. The rest have continued their journey to FDs in the country with IOM or with their own means. The TC (the Lycée Moderne ) is a school under construction. IOM is leading the upgrading work and management of this site, that will give shelter to returnees before they continue their journey towards FDs in the country. 4
Mbitoye Mbitoye is an agglomeration of several small villages, hidden among the trees and spread over an area of 10 x 15 km and located at the junction between Chad- Cameroon and the CAR. Most of the 13,359 persons registered here have claimed to have CAR nationality. Therefore only a small fraction of arrivals left for other FDs in the country. To date there is still no shelter set up to accommodate the displaced people in Mbitoye. Many of them are hosted by the local population, in their small houses or under the trees (some are far inside the forest), which hampers accurate assessments and delivery of services. Some of them came with their livestock and assets. Gore Returnees were initially hosted inside the Gore Hospital. However, as their number increased, they had to be accommodated outside and around the health facility. The construction of latrines is being undertaken by other agencies, but NFIs including hygiene kits are still needed. Doyaba The 11,000 evacuees at the TC receive no regular food distribution, which is of great concern as many have not eaten in days. They also lack NFIs such as hygiene kits, mats, cooking utensils, etc. Fig. 5: Estimated number of evacuees still in the TCs. Still in TCs 5
IOM onward transportation of returnees to FDs from Sido ( IOM 2014 ) FUNDING REQUIREMENTS On 8 January 2014, IOM s appealed for USD 17.5 M for the CAR crisis. This include funding to provide life-saving assistance to Chadian Migrants arriving in Chad. 10 M are for providing emergency evacuation to migrants stranded in the CAR, while 7.5 M are providing life-saving assistance to migrants returning to Chad. To date, the appeal remains critically underfunded, jeopardizing the delivery of the much-needed assistance service to the thousands of Migrants fleeing the violence in the CAR. Table 1 IOM Appeal (USD) TOTAL Emergency evacuation Humanitarian Assistance upon arrival 17.5 M 10 M 7.5 M IOM THANKS ITS DONORS : For more information, please contact : Dr. Qasim SUFI, CoM IOM-Chad (qsufi@iom.int, +235 62 90 0674) Chris HOFFMAN, Humanitarian Field Coordinator (choffman@iom.int, +235 62 93 00 82) Aliou KA, Operations Coordinator (aka@iom.int, +235 63 98 54 76) Sarah LOTFI, Donor Relations Officer (slotfi@iom.int, + 235 62 93 33 32) : Tel: 00235 22 52 53 59 / 60 / 62 6