Legal identity: 1,340 birth certificates and national identity cards for internally displaced persons and vulnerable populations

Bertoua – On May 6, 2024, IOM supports the Government of Cameroon in setting up mechanisms for the mobility and access of migrants to basic social services. It was in this context that the town of Bertoua in the East region hosted on April 24, the official ceremony to hand over civil status documents to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), victims of the conflicts in the North-West and South-West regions, and to vulnerable populations in the host Communes in the Centre, East and Littoral regions.

The ceremony, chaired by the Secretary General of the Governor’s services of the East Region – Théophile Nguia Beina, provided an opportunity to return 507 reconstituted birth certificates to the lucky recipients, including 400 for IDPs and 107 for vulnerable people. The ceremony was attended by representatives of government sectors, United Nations agencies, Municipalities, civil society associations, non-governmental organizations, and beneficiaries. For Mr Martin Tadjou, IDP for the North-West and recipient of a national identity card and birth certificates for his children, this donation means a great for him and his family as it will enable them to be legally recognized within the community.

The month of April was also marked by the provision of 683 legal identification documents for IDPs and vulnerable populations in the Centre region, in the Communes of Yaoundé 3 and Yaoundé 6. Same story for the Communes of Douala 4, Manjo, Nkongsamba 1 and Mélong in the Littoral region, where 100 birth certificates and 50 national identity cards were produced/reconstituted.

Through these interventions, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its financial partners, the French Government and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, hope to meet the primary needs of IDPs and vulnerable populations in host communities, and thus contribute to their better integration. As Etienne Christian Bindzi Bindzi, Regional Head of the Bureau National de l’État Civil (BUNEC) for the East region pointed out, this is the first step in responding to a “priority”.

All the activities were carried out in close collaboration with BUNEC’s decentralized structures in the Centre, East and Littoral regions, as well as with the target Municipalities. Throughout the implementation of the activities, these partners with the support of IOM, identified, verified and consolidated the data of beneficiaries, as well as reconstituted documents in their jurisdictions of origin in the case of birth certificates. The reconstitution of civil status documents was also made possible thanks to the contribution of BUNEC’s local offices in the North-West and South-West, which facilitated the procedure in the beneficiaries’ home jurisdictions.  

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For more information, please contact:

• Franck Olivier Mbang, IOM Cameroon, Tel: 690366090, Email: fmbang@iom.int
• Elodie Ndeme Bodolo, IOM Cameroon, Tel: 691638957, Email: endeme@iom.int