According to IOM’s latest data, there are currently 7.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Ukraine; with many experiencing displacement for the second time after having been forced to leave their homes in 2014. In addition, another 4 million people have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries, including more than 200,000 third-country nationals.

People who were forced to leave Ukraine now represent the third largest population group of refugees globally after only one month of conflict. Many of those are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

In response, IOM has accelerated its global procurement capacity to meet immediate and emerging needs.  IOM Turkey is playing a leading role in this effort and has scaled-up its procurement and logistics capacities within the scope of the IOM Flash Appeal for Ukraine and Neighbouring Countries. The flash appeal outlines IOM's proposed response over the next six months (March-August 2022), focusing on a range of activities to meet the identified needs of those impacted by the crisis in alignment with inter-agency appeals launched in response to the crisis.

Within the scope of long-standing and close cooperation between IOM and Turkey, and with the support of the Turkish Government, IOM Turkey is procuring and delivering more than 230,000 shelter repair kits, hygiene kits, kitchenware sets, blankets, mattresses, solar lamps and other non-food items totaling over USD 26 million. Deliveries began in mid-March and on average, 50 trucks are being dispatched weekly from Gaziantep, Kayseri, and Usak to Ukraine through IOM’s logistics hub in Košice, Slovakia before onward shipping to IOM’s warehousing network inside Ukraine. In total, over 600 trucks of urgent humanitarian aid supplies will be mobilized over the next three months.

To date, IOM Turkey has sent 100 trucks to the IOM logistics hub in Košice, from where the humanitarian supplies are delivered to Ukraine.

"IOM Turkey has one of the largest warehouses globally. The mission’s procurement and logistics teams have the capacity to run large-scale operations. Turkish companies and suppliers, whom we have been working with for a while now, are scaling up their production to deliver humanitarian aid to meet the growing humanitarian needs in Ukraine," says Gerard Waite, IOM Turkey’s Chief of Mission.

The procurement and timely delivery of the humanitarian aid supplies have become possible thanks to the financial support of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, the European Union’s Directorate General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), the Governments of Canada and Japan, the Central Emergency Response Fund, the Ukraine Humanitarian Fund, the German Federal Foreign Office, and private donations.