ZIMBABWEAN migrant workers in neighbouring South Africa are set to receive more food assistance from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to ease their COVID-19-induced hunger and other associated ills. BY NQOBANI NDLOVU Zimbabweans based in the neighbouring country have not been spared the harsh effects of COVID-19 that have resulted in company closures, job losses among other unplanned disruptions to livelihoods. Several diasporans have returned home to escape the COVID-19-induced crisis in their host countries. According to the Zimbabwe Consulate in Johannesburg, the IOM has requested details of Zimbabweans in dire need of food vouchers. “The embassy has been requested by the International Organisation for Migration to submit a list of Zimbabweans for inclusion in a list containing vulnerable migrants from other countries who will receive food assistance in the form of a once-off voucher,” the Zimbabwe Consulate said on Thursday last week. The deadline was yesterday. “In this regard, we are hereby inviting Zimbabweans resident in South Africa in need of such assistance and meet the below listed criteria to urgently re-submit their details via the registration link … priority in the provision of this assistance will be given to expecting mothers, unemployed youth and women headed households.” Early this month, over 100 000 Zimbabwean migrant workers in that country benefited from that country’s COVID-19 relief funds. According to Zim-Com SA, an umbrella body representing Zimbabweans in South Africa, the Unemployment Insurance Fund has so far paid out R434 million to 114 000 migrant workers. There are no reliable statistics on the number of Zimbabweans based in South Africa, with some putting the figure at three million.