Hey everyone. I'm Seth. Ryan did a pretty good job of covering our basics. I'll add in a couple of things: First, we're currently doing refugee family reunions, for the most part. This is because there is a streamlined process for those that are recognized as refugees in the "normal" way by
UNHCR where they receive flight assistance from
IOM upon getting a resettlement assignment. What this does not take into account, however, is the massive number of people who have been separated from their families around the world, and where one family member has received refugee status but the others are still stuck somewhere else. Our "average" case goes something like, "Dad/oldest brother went overland from Syria/Afghanistan/Iran to UK/Belgium/Sweden and asked for asylum. Refugee asylum was granted. He then submitted paperwork for his wife/wife and kids/parents and siblings to join him. This was also granted. Now he has no money to actually pay for the expenses of plane travel to bring his family. The family members, meanwhile, are technically not refugees until they enter their new country and apply for asylum themselves. In the meantime they are simply family reunion visa recipients. Because of this, they are ineligible for travel assistance from IOM.
Miles4Migrants, at this point, is just over a year old and our stats look like this:
Total miles used 1,664,751
Total money used $5,476.93
Total cash value of flights $42,760.40
Total people flown 86
We've flown people from 12 countries of origin (DR Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Ukraine, Jamaica, Burundi, Somalia) at this point, with 4 recipient countries all within Europe (UK, Sweden, Belgium, Germany) as our recipients' destinations.
