Migrants require assistance at key transit points, in the communities where they settle, and as they transit, often on foot and in remote desert areas, with minimal economic resources. Their most critical needs include water, food, and search and rescue in the Obock region (Djibouti). IOM will provide basic humanitarian assistance to vulnerable migrants, including stranded migrants, UASCs, GBV survivors and victims of human trafficking, including food and other humanitarian post-arrival support based on needs and vulnerability criteria. IOM will work closely with Migration Response Centres (MRCs), Migration Response Points, Community Centres, shelters and other service providers to:

• Provide basic needs including food assistance through the MRC network, in host and transit communities and other areas where migrants converge in the target countries;
• Provide multipurpose cash assistance (MPCA) to the most vulnerable migrants, returnees and host communities, including pregnant and lactating women, women with small children, girls, persons with medical conditions, victims of trafficking, migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse, older persons, and persons with disabilities. IOM will assess the appropriateness of the MPCA in each country/location to ensure that the cash interventions do not put women at greater risks.

Migrants persistently and progressively endure deteriorating living conditions and increased protection risks including status-based discrimination, physical and psychological abuse, marginalization, exposure to violence and conflict in transiting countries, hardening attitudes of authorities against migrants, exploitation, human rights violations, detention, family separation, and gender-based violence (GBV) compounding safety and dignity concerns for migrant women and girls. To address the increasing protection needs, IOM will seek to contribute to the upholding of migrant rights and enhance the capacity of governments, local authorities and partners to strengthen the provision of tailored assistance and protection services for vulnerable migrants and populations through the following activities:

• Strengthening specialized protection services by developing and rolling out referral mechanisms on provision of tailored services such as GBV, child protection and legal aid/counselling, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and establishing hotlines for referral mechanisms;
• Supporting the development/review of appropriate standard operating procedures (SOPs) and training protection service providers to ensure that the services are provided in line with established standards;
• Developing a manual to guide staff and service providers working with communities to ensure the application of a rights-based, community-based protection mechanism approach and maximize use of existing community capacities to provide protection and assistance to migrants and returnees;
• Developing tools and guidelines on protection assessments, establish protection monitoring systems, and conduct protection and vulnerability assessments along the migration corridor to ensure timely identification and analysis of protection concerns, needs and gaps;  
• Strengthening the capacity of coast guards and border officials to provide life-saving transportation and rescue assistance in a safe, humane and dignified manner to migrants through providing equipment and training on border management and international human rights law;  
• Strengthening cooperation with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on dead body management (DBM), develop SOPs for the referral for assistance and protection of migrants in vulnerable situations including family tracing and restoring family links services;
• Engaging directly with migrants on the route through the sharing of key messages (information, education, and communication (IEC) materials for migrants) on protection-related information/rights to help inform their decisions at border crossing points;
• Conducting workshops with the authorities in both northern and southern governorates in Yemen with the aim of providing capacity-building on international human rights and humanitarian law components.

Voluntary humanitarian return (VHR) constitute immediate life-saving options to assist migrants who wish to return and have no means to do so with their voluntary and dignified return to their countries of origin. Pre-departure processes such as family tracing for UASCs will be coordinated with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the ICRC, and/or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) through referral mechanisms. IOM will undertake the following activities:

• Provide VHR assistance from transit/destination countries to vulnerable groups including UASCs, pregnant and lactating women, women-headed households, GBV survivors, victims of trafficking, older persons, persons with disabilities, people with medical conditions and persons who have experienced a series of grave violations;
• Provide accommodation and care for VHR beneficiaries who have tested positive for COVID-19 at the quarantine facilities in Yemen;
• Provide pre-departure assistance[1] to migrants supported with VHR;
• Provide post-arrival assistance in the return countries, including direct assistance or referrals to specialized services such as safety, medical, MHPSS, temporary shelter for GBV survivors, victims of trafficking (VOTs) or UMC, and onward transport assistance (OTA) to the community of origin.

In 2022, IOM will implement mental health and psychosocial support ( MHPSS) activities in line with the IOM Manual on Community-Based MHPSS in Emergencies and Displacement to strengthen the protection environment for migrants and affected communities, including:

• Providing psychosocial and psychological support for migrants with MHPSS needs, including counselling, organization of socio-relational activities, and so on;
• Providing tailored child protection services for UASC at the MRCs and in other protection centres along the Eastern Route, in line with established minimum standards;
• Supporting the strengthening of MHPSS actors in the region by building the capacity of frontline actors on psychological first aid (PFA) and the basic principles of MHPSS.

The pandemic has resulted in disruptions in key health services for the treatment of other communicable and non-communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and malaria, as well as preventative services such as routine immunizations and reproductive health for women. Given the fragmented and overstretched national health systems in the MRP target countries, required resources significantly exceeds the existing capacity. IOM will therefore provide life-saving primary health services to improve the health conditions of vulnerable groups and support the strengthening of referrals to specialized health services. Across the migratory route, health systems will be strengthened to be more responsive and resilient to migration. Key activities will include:

• Providing emergency medical care to migrants needing assistance through mobile teams and static health centres and strengthening of referral mechanisms to support the provision of primary and secondary health care in a timely and quality manner;
• Providing technical support, training and guidance related to essential integrated migration health services, migrant-friendly services and international human rights law to medical staff at the MRCs and mobile clinics; 
• Supporting the government and other relevant stakeholders with COVID-19 related assistance, including capacity building and implementation of Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE), Infection Prevention and Control (IPC), support for isolation/quarantine, procurement of equipment, and so forth;
• Enhancing the capacity of the medical staff at MRCs’ clinics through the training of personnel; 
• Conducting mobile medical outreach and assist migrants and host communities along primary and secondary migration routes, with a focus on health, to ensure the continuation of the COVID-19 response in hard-to-reach areas.

Access to water, basic sanitation and improved hygiene conditions in households, community kitchens, points of entry (PoEs), temporary shelters, MRCs, transit centres and health centres are amongst the most crucial needs of migrants and the affected host communities in targeted countries. These needs have become further exacerbated due to the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which continues to affect the MRP target countries. Overall, improved WASH services will also ensure that migrants do not contract COVID-19 while on their journeys and will also contribute to the restoration of safety and dignity.  Interventions are planned at both the household and institutional levels and all activities will follow country guidelines on COVID-19 preventive measures, such as physical distancing. Specifically, IOM will seek to:

• Provide support for COVID-19 IPC and WASH-related IPC measures such as additional hand hygiene infrastructure, adequate water, and soap supply;
• Improve access to WASH for migrants and host communities by focusing on access to safe, equitable and affordable water and sanitation facilities and services, including hygiene promotion services, operation and maintenance capacity building services of strategic water supply networks and multi-use communal water points;
• Recruit and train migrants and community members as hygiene promoters with a focus on key health risks related to WASH and promote improved hygiene practices such as hand washing, safe collection and storage of drinking water;   
• Conduct health and hygiene promotion and sensitization sessions for local and gender-balanced hygiene promoters in risk communication and community engagement (RCCE) and IPC for COVID-19 and other diseases. Key messages will be rolled out to the communities by the hygiene promotors and through mass media and other information technology (IT) based solutions;
• Refurbish WASH infrastructure at PoEs and provision of WASH services (trucking, hygiene promotion, and do forth);
• Promote awareness-raising on safe waste management, support host communities to become waste-free through community-led cleaning/disposal campaigns, and train community mobilizers and leaders in vulnerable settlements and host communities.

Access to shelter for migrants has become more critical since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding to these challenges, movements across the region are expected to continue in 2022, putting increased pressure on shelters with already limited capacity. Temporary accommodation at the transit centres and MRCs is usually provided for limited periods (depending on returnees’ individual needs) until they receive VHR or OTA to return to their home communities safely. In some instances, beneficiaries may stay longer at the transit centres/MRCs, for example to receive longer-term medical treatment. The assistance will be provided in collaboration with partners through existing networks of protection actors and in particular child protection and GBV service providers. In 2022, IOM will focus on:

• Establishing/strengthening strategic way stations, MRCs/transit centres and shelters in coordination with regional stakeholders to strengthen the provision of temporary accommodation and shelter kits to vulnerable migrants and enhance the screening of their vulnerabilities;
• Establishing partnerships with shelter/temporary accommodation service providers and strengthen their capacities to enhance referrals of migrants in case of a need for temporary accommodation;
• Distributing non-food items (NFIs) to stranded migrants as well as the most vulnerable populations in host communities. NFIs will be context-specific, based on the needs of the stranded migrants and the situation in which the stranded migrants find themselves.

Engaging sending, transit, host, and return communities through the implementation of community-based (re-)integration projects, community conversations, support programmes and improving access to livelihood opportunities, alternatives to migration, and safety nets is key to community stabilization and to address drivers of instability in each target country is key to the response. IOM's activities will address the needs of at-risk vulnerable groups and support community cohesion efforts targeting migrants and affected communities in hot spot areas of transit and migration. Community stabilization activities will seek to assist governments, civil society and affected communities to identify and respond to local drivers of forced and irregular migration to lay the foundations for sustainable solutions, social cohesion, and sustainable development through:

• Strengthening the role and participation of migrants and communities in consultations through communication with communities (CwC) and community conversation approaches, ensuring protection and gender mainstreaming, enabling community information-sharing, and ensuring that feedback, concerns, and contributions are incorporated and prioritized in crisis response interventions;
• Establishing/strengthening community-based protection structures and social policies that support vulnerable and returnee migrants, including women, children and those at risk;
• Addressing the negative drivers of migration in migrant sending and returnee communities in environmentally fragile locations by promoting community initiatives that foster stability and resilience, such as climate-adaptive livelihoods projects, including the restoration of degraded farmland;
• Increasing access of vulnerable migrants and transit/host community households to livelihoods through cash-for-work schemes and vocational training;
• Capacity-building of local government to deliver equitable access to essential services, ensure inclusive decision-making, and strengthen constituents' trust, including through the construction/rehabilitation of key community infrastructure;
• Promoting social cohesion between migrant, host and transit communities through community dialogues, the promotion of peaceful coexistence, and community activities that increase interaction among different population groups.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) monitors migrant movements. DTM is used to regularly and systematically capture, process and disseminate information to provide a better understanding of these movements and evolving needs of migrants in places of transit or destination. Information on migrant flows, root causes, risks of human trafficking and smuggling, and the protection needs, risks and vulnerabilities of migrants will be collected through protection assessments and flow monitoring and shared with governments and partners on a regular and timely basis. IOM will:

• Provide technical support to the DTM flow monitoring network across the main migration routes to track migration flows and provide data to inform protection advocacy and programming at country and regional levels, and cross analyze data with other migrant service providers (such as MRC registration and service data) to identify possible stranded caseloads, migration protection needs, vulnerabilities and design referral pathways at the local level;
• Conduct in-depth surveys of migrants along the route to gather information about the migration journey, migration practices, experiences, root causes, routes, human trafficking and smuggling patterns, needs and vulnerabilities of migrants;
• Assess perceptions and risks towards migrants among the host communities throughout the Eastern and the Southern Route[1] to inform policy, programming, and advocacy efforts; 
• Conduct joint protection monitoring visits with key protection actors to assess specific needs and the impact of COVID-19 on the migrants and host communities and review the rights-based approaches;
• Conduct a (meta) mapping of key resources available to migrants along the main migration routes, including the capacity and assistance provided by MRCs and partners. 

I

IOM will foster an environment of cooperation and promote agreements between governments and among partners in the region and will strengthen government and non-governmental institutional capacities in reinforcing migrants’ access to protection services, including comprehensive multi-sectoral GBV services, with the objective of upholding international standards and norms. Focus will be placed on building local actors’ capacities to respond to the specific protection needs of returnees, including GBV case management, child protection, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), and disability inclusion. Key activities include: 

• Strengthen ongoing regional and country efforts to enhance effective coordination, advocacy and information-sharing among partners and implement inter-agency capacity-building initiatives on the MRP’s thematic areas, including regular meetings for the Migrant Protection Working Group;   
• Support inter-state/bilateral and inter-regional dialogues and cooperation, to advance the development/harmonization of relevant policies, procedures, and frameworks and to bolster advocacy and coordination as well as to implement programming to address the needs of migrants along the Eastern Route, including for protection and health, in coordination and partnership with relevant actors, such as the Regional Economic Communities;
• Develop and implement the regional MRC strategy and relevant operational strategies including the MRC Management System, MRC Information System and MRC Monitoring and Evaluation Framework in line with the MRC Regional Guidelines and Standards for Operations.
• Strengthen the capacity of member states in migration health statistics and disease health surveillance (DHS), through conducting a study on health vulnerabilities and identify possible avenues for Data Hub collaboration and a joint dashboard with epi data and mobility tracking;
• Support and influence national-level working groups on policy coherence, on developing the evidence base and knowledge/capacity and programmes in support of migrants and sending communities, particularly those affected by environmental degradation (climate-related or otherwise) through relevant regional working groups;
• Provide capacity- building support (such as equipment and, technical support) to key government departments with migration related mandates including trainings, support to the establishment of bilateral agreements, enhancement of government structures and diaspora engagement to promote safe pathways for migration and reduce the risks for exploitation and abuse.