LATINO PRESS WORLDWIDE
June 27, 2017
Haiti – On 20 June, the UN Migration Agency (IOM) opened Haiti’s first Border Resource Centre (BRC), incoordination with the Mayor of Anse-à-Pîtres and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour. The BRC is the first State institution tasked with ensuring the safe and respectable return of Haitian migrants to their country of origin. Three additional BRCs are in the process of being built at the remaining three official border sites: Malpasse, Belladère, and Ouanaminthe.
These centres will allow local protection agencies to better identify, orient, and assist vulnerable migrants – all while creating a space where the agencies can collaborate with each other and provide psycho-social counselling. The project also seeks to put in place referral mechanisms in order to facilitate greater access to basic services and support the sustainable reintegration of vulnerable migrants in Haiti.
“Migrants are human beings beyond all else. Opening a centre where we can welcome migrants and provide them with psychological counseling to heal their wounds is a strong symbolic and humane gesture. This important initiative is supported and encouraged by the Haitian government,” said Roosevelt Bellevue, Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, during the opening of the BRC.