GLOBAL: Fleeing Disaster Can Be a Good Thing
IRIN reported on 30 March that some countries have begun turning the displacement that follows natural disasters into a positive learning experience by providing such migrants with temporary work permits to help them earn an income and acquire skills, making them more resilient when they return home. Colombia has come up with an interesting alternative: in 2006, when the Galeras volcano in southwest Colombia erupted, the government set up a programme allowing several thousand affected people temporary migration to Spain, where they earned an income, mostly through agricultural work, for a period of six months, the UNFPA noted in its recent annual report. "Since then the programme has been expanded to include people in rural communities, where crops and land are vulnerable to floods and other natural disasters," UNFPA said. Read: IRIN