GENEVA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The International Organization for Migration (IOM) appealed to international donors on Tuesday for an initial 1.9 million U.S. dollars to provide emergency help to tens of thousands of displaced people in Georgia.

    The funding request, part of the UN's Flash Appeal, will allow IOM staff in Georgia to provide emergency ground transportation to support on-going UN food distributions, the Geneva-based UN agency said in a statement.

    The fund will also be used to distribute shelter materials and non-food items to hundreds of particularly vulnerable families who have been displaced by the recent armed conflict, the statement said.

    IOM is currently mobilizing some 20 staff in Tbilisi, Kutasi and Batumi, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, to support data collection on the newly displaced and to assist in the distribution of emergency assistance.

    Based on the number of people registered by the Georgian authorities, some 128,700 people have been displaced in Georgia during the recent conflict, including some 81,000 in Tbilisi.

    This figure does not include the estimated 30,000 people believed to have sought refuge in North Ossetia of Russia.