Southern Sudan teachers return home

Nov 23, 2006 (NAIROBI) — The International Organization forMigration (IOM) said on Thursday it has facilitated the return of the first group of teachers from Khartoum to southern Sudan under a program designed to enhance the Sudanese human resource capacity.

In a statement received in Nairobi, the IOM said six teachers and 14 dependents were flown to Juba airport on the inaugural flight, which took off from Khartoum early Wednesday.

“This group is the first of 130 teachers to be returned during a four-week pilot return initiative,” the statement said.

IOM aims at returning a significant share of the 4,000 teachersstill displaced in the north of Sudan by February 2007, it added.

The IOM said the teacher return operation is part of a broader Danish International Development Agency funded program, termed RQS, the Return of Qualified Sudanese, which targets qualified cadres from three key regions: IDPs (internally displaced persons) in northern Sudan, refugees and migrants in neighboring countries like Kenya and Uganda, and the greater diasporas in North America, Europe and Asia.

“The main target groups are teachers, health workers, vocational workers such as carpenters and mechanics, and highly qualified professionals such as engineers and professors,” it said.

IOM anticipates that further assisted return and employment of qualified southern Sudanese in 2007 will not only facilitate the sustainability of the overall return process, but will also provide the foundation for longer term social and economic development in Sudan, it added.

(Xinhua)