Practices by Stakeholder 8

The practices on transit points and migrant reception centers identified for international organizations are also relevant to civil society.

Civil society engagement in humanitarian response

Actions civil society can take to assist migrants during a crisis include:

• Ensuring information about assistance is delivered to migrant groups, faith-based organizations, local leaders, and others with connections to migrants;
• Reaching out to these same local actors to identify gaps in assistance or coverage;
• Sharing information with humanitarian actors and emergency responders on local migrant populations and gaps in assistance;
• Involving migrants as volunteers or staff in the provision of assistance, as they can increase outreach and coverage and can ensure that assistance is delivered to migrants in linguistically attuned and culturally appropriate ways;
• Using the expertise, skills, and outreach capacity of different civil society to provide tailored assistance to meet the specific needs of particular migrant groups, including women migrant domestic workers, unaccompanied or separated children, victims of trafficking, and migrants with disabilities;
• Establishing safe spaces and centers for migrants generally and vulnerable migrants specifically where assistance can be properly tailored and provided in a sensitive and safe manner;
• Assisting with family tracing, reunification, and identification of remains of missing migrants.

Diaspora engagement in humanitarian response

Diaspora groups have access to migrants, networks, pre-established relations of trust and loyalty, and a vested interest in the protection of, and assistance to, vulnerable migrants. The ways in which diaspora, including diaspora organizations can be engaged in responses include:

• Generating funds for humanitarian assistance, such as fundraising events and voluntary contributions;
• Using pre-existing relationships of trust with migrants to negotiate and facilitate responders’ access to migrant groups, register migrants for assistance, and assess their needs;
• Acting as intermediaries between migrant communities and authorities where necessary, especially for groups that may mistrust State actors;
• Providing direct services, based on their particular expertise and capacities, including translation services, cultural intermediation, and in-kind assistance;
• Volunteering with other stakeholders to assist migrants in the host State.