East Timor Government Assistance to Relocated IDP's

REPUBLICA DEMOCRATICA DE TIMOR-LESTE
MINISTERIO SOLIDARIEDADE SOCIAL
SECRETARIADO PROGRAMA HAMUTUK HARII FUTURU

PRESS RELEASE 21 October 2008

Availability of HHF Recovery Packages

The Ministry of Social Solidarity wishes to clarify that Hamutuk Hari’i Futuru recovery packages are only available to people whose houses were destroyed between 1 April 2006 and 31 October 2007.

Families whose houses were destroyed in 1999 are NOT entitled to receive a recovery package from the Ministry of Social Solidarity. Families whose houses were destroyed from 1 November 2007 onwards are also NOT entitled to receive a recovery package.

One family is entitled to ONLY ONE recovery package. If you have received a reintegration package ($200) from one camp, you cannot then try and receive a recovery package from another camp.

If an IDP family wishes to receive a recovery package they must follow the correct process under Hamutuk Hari’i Uma. That is, they must first have registered with MSS as an IDP. Their registration will then be entered into the Hamutuk Hari’i Uma database. A verification team will then take the IDP back to their former home so they can identify the house positively as their house. The government will then know definitively who was the pre-April 2006 occupier of that house. The estimation team will then calculate the amount each IDP is entitled to receive as a recovery package. Each IDP is then informed of this amount through the socialization process prior to a camp movement.

To date, 8600 IDP families have received a recovery package or a reintegration package. MSS has distributed more than $19.3 million in recovery/reintegration packages. 29 camps are now closed.