The Operations and Movement Management Unit was established for effective implementation of refugee resettlement and migrants’ assisted voluntary return and reintegration in line with IOM’s global principle of providing dignified, orderly and cost effective services to:
• Refugees hosted in Sudan and selected for resettlement in third countries
• Migration health processing for travel abroad
• Vulnerable migrants willing to voluntarily return to Sudan
• Humanitarian evacuation
Partners in Sudan
The Unit works in close partnership and coordination with the Government of Sudan’s relevant counterparts, namely: the Commission for Refugees, the Aliens’ Department, the National Intelligence and Security Services, and Airport Authority at Khartoum International Airport. On the other hand, partnerships are also established with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the embassies of the countries of resettlement in Sudan.
PROGRAMMES
Resettlement of Refugees
IOM assists with the process of preparing and transporting refugees accepted for resettlement and family reunification abroad. 20,000 refugees left Sudan with IOM assistance from January 2005 to July 2016 for resettlement in the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, German, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. All have received medical fit-for-travel screening immediately before actual travel, and most also have extensive medical assessments, with appropriate treatment and follow-up where necessary.
Cultural orientation is provided for refugees bound for Australia, Canada, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, the United States and more recently Italy to prepare them for their new life and speed up integration in a new socio-economic and cultural context. This is conducted either by an IOM trainer or by appointed representatives of the country of resettlement.
Migration Health
IOM ensures that people travelling under its auspices do so in a safe and dignified manner, are fit to travel, receive appropriate assistance when necessary, and do not pose health hazard to other travelers, personnel or receiving communities.
IOM Sudan’s Migration Health clinic underwent an upgrade in 2015, enabling a breakthrough in the scope and scale of activities. The clinic now has the capacity to undertake full medical assessments through IOM panel physicians and has boosted IOM's medical assessment capacity to 60-70 migrants per day, with new equipment and standards that allow for meeting the medical protocols of countries of resettlement respectively.
IOM Sudan Migration Health Team provide the following services:
• Full Health Assessments and Fitness to Travel Medical Screening - IOM Sudan provides full health assessments and fit-to-travel medical screenings for non-Sudanese refugees resettling in a number of countries [UK, Australia, Germany, US (under USRAP, United States Refugees Admission Program), Norway, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands and others with resettlement programmes for refugees residing in Sudan]. Fit-to-travel medical assessments are also provided prior to departure for foreign vulnerable migrants in Sudan willing to return home through organized movements, as well as full health assessments for self-paying migrants who wish to migrate abroad from Sudan.
• United Kingdom Tuberculosis (UKTB) Screening - As part of the travel health assistance activities, this IOM self-running cost programme provides TB screening to UK visa applicants who intend to stay six months or more in the UK.
• DNA Testing is conducted as a medical protocol for refugees resettling in specific countries like Italy, as well as for family reunification purposes of refugees in Sudan to their relatives who are already in a specific country of resettlement.
• Yellow Fever Vaccination is mandatory and done for those travelling to Australia and New Zealand under IOM auspices.
Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR)
Assisted voluntary return and reintegration is one of many migration management services IOM offers to migrants and governments. It aims at orderly, humane and cost-effective return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in host countries and wish to return voluntarily to their countries of origin. Pre-departure counseling as well as medical counselling, transportation and post-arrival assistance is provided to unsuccessful asylum seekers, migrants in an irregular situation, migrants stranded in transit, stranded students and other persons under similar circumstances while abroad. Reintegration assistance provided under AVRR can include counseling, medical assistance upon return, a reintegration grant to set up a small business, vocational training, job placement and education; as well as follow-up monitoring.
In some instances, IOM provides Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) for cases in which no reintegration assistance is included in the package. Nevertheless, IOM’s intervention aims to provide dignified support to Sudanese nationals returning to Sudan regardless of being under AVR or AVRR package. The design of the return package – whether AVR or AVRR – depends on the offer from the sending country, from where the returning Sudanese migrants voluntarily come from.
Migrant Assistance Operations
These include providing a wide range of support to foreign migrants in distress. IOM has long-standing institutional experience in responding to migration crises, in particular those that include the mobility and movement of people across borders.