Key Figures
Priority Needs
An important challenge faced by migrants and refugees in the region is access to humanitarian transportation. Safe and adequate transportation is essential for
accessing protection (including documentation and regularization) and essential services, including education, healthcare, employment and integration opportunities. However, many refugees and migrants encounter multiple barriers and risks that limit their mobility and expose them to various forms of violence and exploitation.
The lack of valid documentation and regular status affect access to transportation in most countries of the region.
These concerns are compounded by often unaffordable costs of urban transportation. Having progressively increased in the region, regular urban transportation has become out of reach for many migrant and refugee households. For refugees and migrants who live far from their workplaces and their children's schools, this sometimes contributes to parents’ decisions not to enrol their children or to withdraw them from school as they are unable to afford transport costs.
Resources and information related the dangers of irregular movements, geographic and climatic conditions, and available humanitarian and protection services were identified as one of the greatest needs in many countries of the region.
The difficulties in accessing transportation inside and between cities can also expose migrants and refugees to protection risks, impacting their sense of security, and affecting their overall health, often resulting in them walking great distances on foot or to informal modes of transportation, including hitchhiking and use of cargo transportation, such as cargo trucks.
This situation particularly exposes refugees and migrants to risks of human trafficking and smuggling. The need for dignified, orderly, and safe humanitarian transportation is considered a crucial requirement for the integration of refugees and migrants.
Response Strategy
The main response priorities of the Humanitarian Transportation Sector are:
Providing short-distance humanitarian transportation to facilitate access to essential goods and services, such as access to school for refugee and migrant children, health services, migratory regularization and refugee status determination procedures, and livelihoods, especially for those living in peri-urban areas, supporting the integration efforts of the overall response.
Ensure long-distance humanitarian transport within a country's borders for family reunification cases, timely and sensitive case management and access to integration and livelihood opportunities, as well as support people in vulnerable situations to access basic needs such as health, education and protection within countries.
The response will focus more on advocacy, capacity sharing and the provision of technical support to local authorities on humanitarian transportation.
In addition, the Sector will develop strategies for disseminating information on the dangers of irregular movements, climatic conditions, potential hazards and available humanitarian and protection services.
The main objective of these priorities is to support protection, family reunification, integration, employment opportunities and access to essential services.
Humanitarian Transportation Calendar
Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
29
|
30
|
31
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
16
|
17
|
18
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
19
|
20
|
21
|
23
|
24
|
25
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
26
|
27
|
28
|
29
|
30
|
31
|
1
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sector Contacts
Viviana Peña
UNHCR
Celia Izquierdo
IOM
Maria Rodríguez Buitrago
OXFAM