Philippines - IOM is today assisting the local authorities in identifying a mass shelter site for up to 5,000 people in the city of Tacloban, shattered by typhoon Haiyan a week ago.

Five IOM camp managers, veterans of previous typhoon responses, are working across the city to reach the 29 evacuation centres where at least 56,000 people are living in insanitary conditions.

The Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) has been activated, and IOM’s camp managers have appointed temporary camp committees who will ensure vital aid reaches the most vulnerable. The DTM involves constantly updated lists of displaced persons, together with establishing structures in the camps and centres.

“The situation on the ground is overwhelming, and we are not yet able to ascertain the situation across the whole of the affected area,” said IOM’s Operations Coordinator Conrado Navidad. “But significant aid is already reaching people through the Government of the Philippines and the international community. Our work is essential to ensure that people get information about aid so that they don’t lose hope at this critical time.”

IOM co-leads the Camp Coordination and Camp Management cluster with the government and is a key partner of the shelter cluster. International IOM experts have been flown in from Manila, Bangkok and Geneva to assist local staff, who have been at ground zero since Sunday, establishing IOM’s presence and setting up a structure to deliver aid.

Seven days after typhoon Haiyan smashed into six locations in the central Philippines, the most significant needs are for the provision of shelter, food, water, medicine and non-food items, such as clothes, bedding and tools to fix shelters.

Sanitation is also a concern as open defecation is widespread, with the attendant fears of water-borne diseases.

“The sooner we can get people into safe and well-organized temporary shelter, the better,” said IOM’s Operations Coordinator. “In a city as widely damaged as Tacloban, we have no real alternative in the short term if we want to provide people with minimum levels of comfort and dignity. People are staying optimistic but the longer this goes on the more disaffected they will become.”

IOM’s Director General William Lacy Swing arrives in the Philippines on Sunday and will visit several sites in the affected area. The scale of the crisis affecting the Philippines is vast with some 2.45 million families, representing 11.3 million persons directly affected by Haiyan. They include over 670,000 persons who have lost their home. There are 1,217 evacuation centers housing approximately 367,000 displaced individuals; in addition, over 300,000 people remain homeless outside the evacuation centers.

IOM is appealing for $21.5 million to maintain its focus on emergency shelter operations as well as the Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) cluster which IOM co-leads in the Philippines, in close partnership with the the Government’s Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

For more information please contact

Joe Lowry
Tacloban
Intl Cell: +63 927 6298700 (Globe)
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Philippines Cell +63 933 5654841
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Email: Jlowry@iom.int  or joelowry@gmail.com