International Organization for Migration (IOM), in cooperation with the Government of the Slovak Republic and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) organizes humanitarian transfer of another 33 Somali and Ethiopian refugees. The group consists of women and families with children who had to leave their homes due to ongoing conflicts and risk of persecution and fled to Yemen. They were granted international protection there and in May 2014 IOM transferred them to Slovakia which provided them with a temporary shelter. This is already a third group of refugees from Yemen, who were temporarily admitted to Slovakia based on the trilateral agreement between the Slovak government, IOM and UNHCR.

The photo is for illustrative purposes only, IOM Slovakia

The refugees are accommodated in the Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) in Humenne where they will stay for a period of maximum 6 months. Afterwards they will be permanently resettled to a third country which will provide them with a new home in safe environment.

IOM has been cooperating with the Slovak government and UNHCR on resettlement operation already since August 2009 when a group of 98 Palestinian refugees from a camp in Iraq was resettled through the asylum facility in Humenne. Between 2009 and May 2014 IOM Bratislava, in cooperation with its partners, resettled already 509 refugees through the territory of Slovakia. The refugees came from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Somalia and Sudan.

IOM is responsible for the transportation of refugees to the Slovak Republic and from the Slovak Republic to the country of resettlement. IOM also provides services related to health assessment of refugees, and courses of cultural orientation which prepare the refugees for a new life in the country of their resettlement.

Activities of IOM in the project of Humanitarian Transfer of Refugees are financed by the by the US Government through its USRAP Program – United States Refugee Admissions Program, or by similar programs of other resettlement countries.