Ireland - IOM Ireland has launched a report on assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programmes, which looks at best practices, experiences and methodologies in seven pre-selected European Economic Area (EEA) member states with on-going voluntary return programmes.

Undertaken with funding from the European Return Fund (ERF) and with support from Ireland’s Department of Justice, the report compares specific national strategies and mechanisms with the aim of identifying key lessons and recommendations for the development of a more strategic approach to voluntary return management in Ireland and other EU member states. 

The report also provides a set of core principles for effective information and outreach that have been endorsed by the governments of the seven participating States – Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

The assessment takes account of diverse national specificities and priorities and recognizes that there can be no single “right” approach to AVRR outreach, but identifies basic principles.

“The overarching lesson for all governments promoting AVRR programmes is that migrants and their needs and concerns should be at the center of the return process. To achieve this requires the cooperation and participation of a broad range of actors, including governments, civil society organizations and migrants themselves – not just in host countries but also in countries of origin,” says IOM Ireland Chief of Mission Laurentiu Ciobanica.

“Building partnerships and networks and including a diverse range of national and international stakeholders is essential for the effective implementation of AVRR – from the pre-return to the reintegration stages,” he added.

This has considerable bearing on the information and outreach strategies that need to be put in place, specifically how the AVRR message about benefits, support and quality of services, filters into communities and ebbs and flows from countries of host and origin.

In support of this finding, carefully considered and targeted information and outreach strategies have an especially key role to play in building trust and understanding with potential beneficiaries and challenging any misinformation, especially about the benefits of AVRR.  

“The assessment findings clearly demonstrate that communication with potential beneficiaries needs to start in the very early stages of the process; it needs to be predictable and sustained, a two-way conversation between the migrant and the counsellor, whether an immigration officer, an IOM staffer or an NGO worker,” says Ciobanica.

The intention of study was not only to put together a useful inventory of current methodology and practice for voluntary return, but to articulate a living, flexible tool for all practitioners and decision makers, including especially service providers working on voluntary return, he adds. 

Since 2001, IOM has, in conjunction with Ireland’s Department of Justice, been offering AVRR support to migrants with an active claim for asylum and to irregular migrants experiencing difficulty in Ireland.  Over this time, IOM Ireland has assisted over 3,800 migrants to voluntarily return in a dignified and humane manner to 96 countries of origin.

To download a copy of the report, please click here.   

For further information please contact John McGeoghan at IOM Ireland, Tel: +353 1676 0655, Email: jmcgeoghan@iom.int