Uganda | 30 Years of Serving Mobile Populations in Uganda

CERF-IOM project trains Marine Police in Hoima to support Congolese refugees

By Abubaker Mayemba

IOM, the UN Migration Agency, recently supported the Uganda Police Force’s Marine unit (MPF) at Sebagoro landing site in Hoima district, to improve their capacity and skills to assist Congolese asylum seekers.
After earlier announcing a donation of 400 life jackets and radio communication equipment to the MPF at Sebagoro, IOM this month trained eight officers in medical and search-and-rescue skills.

IOM chief urges facilitative rather than restrictive border management

The IOM Uganda Chief of Mission, Mr Ali Abdi, on Monday urged IGAD member states transition from restrictive to facilitative border management strategies, promote free movement of persons, and unlock the region’s intra-regional trade potential.

IOM supports KCCA consultation on managing migration

By Abubaker Mayemba

On 13 April, Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) held a consultative meeting on taking a coordinated approach to serving urban refugees and migrants.

The stakeholder meeting at Serena hotel was supported by IOM Uganda’s Strengthening Social Cohesion and Stability in Slum Populations project, which is funded by the European Union.

In attendance were members of the diplomatic corps, development partners, United Nations agencies, NGOs dealing with migrants and refugees, and officials from the central and local governments.

IOM Uganda evacuates 456 stranded Congolese

PRESS RELEASE

IOM, supported by UN CERF, responds to influx of Congolese refugees into Uganda

Since 01 January 2018, more than 46,000 Congolese have fled to Uganda, escaping ethnic clashes in their homeland. The scale of this crisis can be seen in the fact by comparison, for the whole of 2017, the number of new Congolese refugees that crossed into Uganda was 43,908.
IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is one of the organizations responding to the emergency.

Director General Swing: IOM Celebrates Migrant Women and Girls

March 8 is International Women's Day. In this article released as part of activities to commemorate the day, IOM DIRECTOR GENERAL WILLIAM LACY SWING talks up the contribution of migrant women and girls to IOM and to humanity in general.

Switzerland – Women and girls represent a significant proportion of people on the move worldwide, all of whom carry with them a heart full of hope, a mind filled with ideas, and a diverse range of migration experiences.

James: People are responding because hygiene is for their own good.

By Richard M Kavuma

One of the standout community volunteers among South Sudanese refugees in Palorinya settlement in Moyo district is Ababa James Oful.

James has endured many ups and downs in his life. Now 25, he joined the South Sudan police in 2010, after dropping out of school in Senior 2. But in August 2011, his police patrol vehicle was involved in an accident that cost him his left leg. He was treated in Nairobi hospital and returned to work in Juba – war forced him to seek refuge in Uganda.

IOM Uganda pilots enhanced screening for mental health

IOM Uganda’s Migration Health Assessment Centre (MHAC) is piloting a scheme for enhanced screening for mental health of refugees in the country.

The initiative started with training workshops in Kampala and Hoima, the result of a collaboration between IOM, the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the War Survivors Institute (WSI).

EU/IOM project builds more Sanitation facilities in West Nile

Funded by European Union Humanitarian Aid, IOM has launched a fresh round of construction of Sanitation facilities for refugees and host communities in Moyo and Yumbe districts.

The sites for the facilities were last week handed over to the contractors in the presence of Government and local leaders, beneficiaries and development partners.

Refugee Stella: Now I have got the knowledge, skills

By Richard M Kavuma

When I first come across Stella Kiden Amosa at the end of November 2017, she is explaining to visitors how her group makes briquettes using local materials.

“We get waste materials such as maize cob, sawdust, groundnut husks or simsim husks, and we carbonize them,” says Stella, one of 20 women in the Fanya Kazi Group in Zone 3 of Palorinya refugee settlement in Moyo district of northwestern Uganda. “We then crush them and add other things like clay soil, molasses and we put in that machine called 12-piston, which produces the briquettes.”