The Foreign Service Journal, March 2013

24 MARCH 2013 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL IOM is one of the few international organizations operat- ing a specialized land, property and reparations unit, which helps returnees clarify their rights and resolve disputes that could otherwise foment conflict and impede sustainable returns. IOM’s work in Colombia offers excellent examples of U.S.-funded reintegration projects for the internally displaced. Unfortunately, the recent return of some 37,000 Burundians (originally displaced by ethnic conflict) from Tanzania was not supported with enough reintegration funding to help resolve the land issues of families who have been away from their homes for many years. To better develop this area and share best practices, IOM experts, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the World Bank, teach the semiannual “Land, Property and Conflict” course run by the U.S. Institute for Peace. Facilitating Resettlement When forced migrants cannot return home or relocate to another part of the country, at least in the near future, the best alternative is likely to be resettlement in the first safe country in which a migrant arrives after fleeing—known as the country of first asylum. However, this often leads to the establishment of large camps for long-term refugees or internally displaced persons, which poses problems for both the dislocated popu- lation and the host communities. These sites create high levels of dependency within the displaced community, and resent- ment among members of the host population, who worry that the new arrivals are taking away resources that are often scarce to begin with. Unfortunately, effective resettlement and reintegration options are, more often than not, altogether lacking in the context of ethnic conflicts. This vacuum can, and often does, spread the conflict to other countries, as we have seen in the Horn of Africa (Somalia-Kenya). Key elements in avoiding or resolving such conflicts involve sustainable livelihoods for the displaced (and host) populations; restoration of basic services; appropriate reconciliation projects; and measures to reinte- grate former combatants into civilian life. Resettlement in a third country is a last option—a recourse only when neither return nor temporary or long-term resettle- ment in neighboring countries is feasible. Under a longstand- ing partnership, IOM assists the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in implementing the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, whose annual quota in recent years has averaged between 60,000 and 75,000. IOM provides assistance through this and similar pro- grams in a variety of ways: rendering logistics support for selection and screening; conducting about 250,000 pre- departure health assessments a year in close cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta; providing cultural orientation and language courses; organizing transportation to the resettlement destination; and linking pre-departure and post-arrival activities through skills-building and psycho- social support. As part of this support, IOM has staff stationed at most major international airports and spends about $120 million a year on one-way air tickets to transport about a quarter of a million people to new lives, away from places where they are highly vulnerable to local conditions. Somali children in the Dadaab refugee camp, the world’s largest, just across the Somali border in northeast Kenya. © iStockphoto.com/sadikgulec