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International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Slovakia offers educational materials for teachers, lecturers, and other professionals working with youth in the area of prevention of human trafficking or those coming into contact with potential victims of human trafficking.

Internation Organization for Migration (IOM) has developed a brief manual for teachers, lecturers and professionals working in the area of prevention. The manual introduces the application SAFE Travel & Work Abroad and provides simple instructions and activities on how to educate youth about human trafficking and safe travelling principles with the use of mobile phones, tablets or website.

In December 2016 and January 2017, IOM provided training courses to another 58 professionals in human trafficking prevention and in the use of mobile applications SAFE Travel & Work Abroad in their education activities about this phenomenon.

Between October and December 2013 IOM, in cooperation with its partners, resettled 120 refugees from the Emergency Transit Centre (ETC) in Humenné to the United States of America. Out of these 120 refugees, 78 were resettled in November which is the highest number of refugees resettled in one month since the Centre was opened in August 2009. The ETC serves to accommodate refugees who found themselves in a difficult situation and were accepted into the program of humanitarian transfers. The refugees were evacuated to the Slovak Republic which provided them with a temporary shelter for a period of 6 months. In safe conditions of the Centre the refugees will complete all necessary preparations, after which they will be resettled to a country that accepts them and offers them an opportunity to start a new life.

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.

In November and December 2015 IOM transferred 17 refugees from refugee camps in the Middle East to Slovakia. The refugees are families with children and individual cases from Sudan and Ethiopia who had to leave their home countries due to threat of persecution and fear for their own lives. For a long time they got stranded in refugee camps without any hope of returning home. As a result, they were selected for resettlement to a third country which accepts them and gives them a new home.

In 2016 International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Slovakia assisted 116 foreigners to return safely home from Slovakia to 18 countries and IOM Migration Information Centre provided integration counselling to over 2,800 clients regarding residential issues and integration in Slovakia. Moreover, IOM staff arranged humanitarian transfer of over 350 refugees from refugee camps to the Slovak Republic and from Slovakia to the countries of their final resettlement.

Here is a summary of IOM results in the key areas of its activities in Slovakia in 2016.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) announced today (20/01/2017) that over 1,000 refugees have been resettled since 2009 through Slovakia’s emergency transit facility to the USA, Canada and Norway. Resettlement of refugees through Slovakia is a joint activity of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Government of Slovakia and IOM.

International Organization for Migration (IOM) expresses its concern for many migrants and asylum seekers housed in camps and in Greece and particularly on the Greek islands enduring freezing winter conditions across Eastern Mediterranean. The region has been hit by some of the heaviest snowfall and the most severe icy temperatures in years.

IOM calls for comprehensive, rapid action to protect and alleviate the suffering of these people. IOM continues to work with the EU, the Greek Government and partners to improve conditions in Greece.

At the occasion of the International Migrant's Day and its 65th anniversary International Organization for Migration (IOM) organized the first Global Migration Film Festival that was held at Kino Lumière in Bratislava on 15 December 2016.

Apart from Slovakia, the festival was held in December 2016 in nearly 90 countries worldwide. It brought to Slovak audience real stories of migrants during their arduous journeys for a new life – on their migration in Africa, en route to Europe and on life of migrants in Europe.