The Migrant Centres Toolkit is an electronic platform that acts as a practical resource for field practitioners engaged in migrant centre operations within the framework of migrant protection and assistance services. It provides access to key guidance material, tools, best practices, and examples for setting up, managing, and phasing out migrant centres based on key humanitarian principles. In particular, the focus of this toolkit is on the management of physical facilities, referred to in this toolkit as "migrant centres".
The toolkit consists of concise entries that provide guidance and tools on specific topics grouped together under four categories:
- Administration: This category provides IOM offices and staff with basic guidance and tools to facilitate the set-up and provision of services in migrant centres, including human resources, cooperation frameworks, procurement and logistics, monitoring, and accountability towards beneficiaries.
- Management of migrant centres: This category focuses on the management of migrant physical centres. It presents possible typologies and management models, as well as resources to facilitate the effective set-up and running of the centres in line with humanitarian assistance and protection standards and best practices. Guidance on beneficiaries’ participation and accountability, information sharing, and community relations is also provided in this section.
- Protection and assistance services: This category provides a general overview of the main direct assistance services that may be offered to migrants in migrant centres, including case management, food and non-food items (NFIs), health and mental health support, education, training and recreational activities, administrative and legal services and sustainable solutions.
- Information management and migration data: This category provides tools to facilitate registration of beneficiaries and ensure accurate information management for programme implementation and reporting purposes. IOM’s data protection provisions are also addressed in this section.
The Migrant Centres Toolkit is accompanied by operational tools designed to facilitate the work of all practitioners engaged in migrant centre operations, including an in-person training package. It is conceived to address the capacity-building needs of different audiences and stakeholders, including national and local authorities, operational partners, IOM’s implementing partners, and civil society organizations. Access the training manual.
Most of the toolkit's content is publicly available, making the resource accessible for partners, migration practitioners, and other key stakeholders. The entries describing internal management and administrative processes are available only to IOM staff.