IOM launches appeal after June 24 Venezuela earthquakes, says shelter and health remain urgent

The International Organization for Migration has launched an appeal to support people and communities affected by the June 24 earthquakes in Venezuela, Leah Poggio, IOM’s chief of mission in Venezuela, said during a briefing of international reporters.

"The International Organization for Migration has launched an appeal to support people and communities affected by the devastating earthquake that struck Venezuela on June 24," Poggio said, describing extensive damage across several states, including La Guaira, the Capital District, Miranda, Carabobo, Aragua, Yaracuy and Falcón.

Poggio said thousands of families were displaced and that homes, health facilities, water systems and other critical infrastructure had been damaged or destroyed, disrupting access to essential services and increasing vulnerability. "While significant response efforts are currently underway, humanitarian needs remain considerable," she said.

IOM provided multiple counts of assistance in the briefing. Poggio said earlier in the response IOM had "assisted almost 7,000 people in displacement sites under its coordination" and delivered "over 10,000 services," including temporary accommodation, health care, psychosocial support and protection assistance. Separately, she told reporters that IOM had "been able to reach around 10,000 people," and that collective sites established by the government and humanitarian partners currently host about 20,000 people who have received assistance.

Responding to questions from journalists, Poggio and a UN agency official described the coordination mechanism in-country. Poggio said an existing coordination structure led by OCHA and a mechanism with the host government, UN partners and humanitarian actors has enabled a rapid response. The UN official added that the resident and humanitarian coordinator had played a key role facilitating access and that multiple UN agencies and humanitarian partners had scaled up response efforts quickly.

On the scale of the disaster, a UN official said the earthquakes measured 7.6 and 7.4, and that the response is shifting from search-and-rescue to recovery and body recovery operations. "The teams that have been withdrawing are the ones doing search and rescue...the work right now is transitioning into recovering people that have passed," the official said, explaining why some search-and-rescue teams are leaving while other humanitarian capacities remain.

Reporters pressed what gaps remain. Shelter and site coordination, debris removal, health services, protection assistance, and early recovery programming were highlighted as urgent needs. The UN official pointed to concerns about managing debris and potential environmental impacts, especially given discussions about a strong El Niño system that could compound risks for displaced people.

Poggio said the humanitarian country team prepared an addendum to the humanitarian response plan to expand the response to reach 1,300,000 people affected by the earthquake and that the addendum is based on rapid needs assessments. She said the addendum identifies priority needs in psychosocial support and health, safe water, food security, shelter and sanitation, and that additional funding is required to carry out the multisector response.

When asked about bilateral contributions, including Chinese government assistance, the UN official said tracking of member-state contributions is managed by OCHA and suggested coordination through OCHA colleagues at country and headquarters levels.

The briefing was hosted by the UN Correspondents Association. Poggio was joined on screen by her colleague Lucas Guedes (IOM disaster risk reduction coordinator). The session ended with a reminder that ongoing coordination and sustained funding will be critical for recovery.

Next steps identified in the briefing: the IOM appeal will guide IOM's work over the next 12 months; the humanitarian country team is seeking funding for the HRP addendum; and shelter cluster activation and debris-management support were named as near-term priorities.