The new rules, reported in the Three Gorges Project Daily (Sanxia gongcheng bao), apply to migrants who move from Chongqing municipality to Hubei province on their own initiative, rather than as part of a group relocated by the government.

Until now, resettlement policy has tended to focus on group migrants and to ignore individual migrants. As a result, individual migrants have been more vulnerable to victimization and have generally fared less well in their new location than group migrants.

With local officials all too often inventing fake migrants to obtain the compensation money or pocketing funds intended for genuine migrants, the resettlement bureau of the Three Gorges Project Construction Committee has announced that from now on:

· Everyone registered as an individual migrant since 1993 must re-register. Sending and receiving regions must co-operate closely to double-check that all migrants are genuine.

· Resettlement authorities in the sending regions are responsible for ensuring that individual migrants receive a lump-sum payment of the compensation owed to them. This amount will include moving expenses, funds for building a new house, a living allowance covering the period of displacement and resettlement, compensation for lost income, and special subsidies for migrant families in financial difficulty.

· Local authorities in the receiving regions are responsible for meeting migrants’ basic needs by providing facilities such as drinking water, schools, health care and roads, all of which should be of a quality at least equivalent to average levels in the area.

· Compensation funds earmarked for individual migrants must be strictly managed, monitored and audited, and never diverted for other purposes.