Featured Projects
Geographical Coverage: Global
Duration: June 29, 2012 – March 31, 2015
Donor: Government of Canada
Summary: The AVRR pilot program will provide tailored assistance to help participants both plan their departure and successfully reintegrate into their home society. Initially, participants will receive pre-departure assistance from the IOM to help with planning for their return. This includes education and counselling on their options for return, help obtaining a travel document if required, and assistance booking a plane ticket to their country of return. Participants will also receive advice to develop a customized plan to help them reintegrate into their home countries’ society upon their return. Once they return to their home country, participants will receive support from IOM office in Hungary.
Creation of a Voluntary Return European Network (VREN)
Geographical Coverage: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland
Duration: 24 Months
Status: Active
Summary: The “Voluntary Return European Network” (VREN) is a two-year project prepared jointly between IOM and 16 Member States in Europe namely, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland. The project aims at setting up an European network on voluntary returns in the 27 EU Member States, Norway and Switzerland, benefiting governmental, non-governmental, and international stakeholders involved in voluntary return. The network will also include members covering the scope of the work in relation to reintegration and return related activities in countries of origin. The overall objective of the project is to facilitate and promote coherent and harmonized voluntary return management policy in Europe. VREN specifically aims at the creation of a sustainable and solid web-based exchange mechanism (in the form of a website) to strengthen and increase coordination and improve information sharing among stakeholders in both Europe (EU MS, Switzerland and Norway) and countries of origin in the field of voluntary return and reintegration. The website will be a forum where all information from the regional and national contexts will be consolidated and accessible to members of the network and the public at large.
Foster and Improve Integration of Trafficked Persons (FIIT)
Geographical Coverage: Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary, the United Kingdom
Duration: 18 Months
Status: Active
Summary: The overall objective of FIIT project is to enhance the long term integration of Victims of Trafficking (VoTs) through the identification, sharing and transfer of good practices related to the legal, economic, psychosocial dimensions of integration, in particular through strengthening professional links among national and European practitioners working with VoTs. This objective will be met through assessing the specific integration needs of VoTs and through identifying current good practices and eventual gaps at each country level. The project will build new links between practitioners involved in the VoTs integration process and enhance existing mechanisms of information sharing.
Enhancing capacities in EU Member States and third countries to promote durable solutions for unaccompanied minors
Geographical Coverage: Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy and the Netherlands + 5 Countries of Origin (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Albania, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244 and Iraq)
Duration: 18 Months
Status: Active
Summary: The aim of the project is to contribute to strengthening and building synergies within family tracing procedures and methodologies in the EU Member States and selected third countries and enhancing the sustainable reintegration of unaccompanied minors choosing to voluntary return to their country of origin as one of the durable solutions envisaged and when it has been determined to be in the Best Interest of the Child (BIC). The project has two phases. The first phase of six months (January-June 2013) involves the development of a country study report in each of the project countries and the presentation of the country reports at a seminar in Brussels. The aim of the country report is to identify good practices and existing methodologies in the field of family tracing as well as any innovative methods for family tracing. The second phase of 12 months (June 2013-June 2014) is the practical part of the project. Actual family tracings will be conducted and reintegration and return support will be provided by IOM if the return of the unaccompanied minor to his/her country of origin is considered to be in the best interest of the child and the preferred option.
Measures to Enhance the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration of Migrants with a Chronic Medical Condition Residing in the EU (AVRR-MC)
Geographical Coverage: The Netherlands, Hungary + Countries of Origin (Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, Mongolia, and Morocco
Duration: 18 Months
Status: Active
Summary: This project aims to contribute to enhancing sustainable return and reintegration of migrants with a chronic medical condition residing in the EU. In order to achieve its objective, the project will implement two components. The first component aims to better equip migrants with a chronic condition to face challenges of the return and reintegration process. The core process and on-going activity of the project will be the delivery of direct assistance to returnees with a chronic condition. In EU MSs, activities will focus on enhanced pre-departure counselling as the first step towards sustainable return and the backbone of future reintegration. A toolkit for return workers with a focus on counselling will be developed, distributed and applied. In the CoOs, activities will focus on the implementation of an innovative tailor-made assistance package including a combination of medical and reintegration grants; referrals to service providers; monitoring of the individual reintegration process; and local networking. The project seeks the involvement of migrants' families and possibly former returnees so that to maximize benefits for migrants. The second component aims to improve awareness and strengthen the capacity in EU MSs and CoOs to deal with the AVRR of medical cases. The project will attract the participation of practitioners operating at both ends of the return process, for a meaningful exchange on the AVRR of medical cases. The project will organize a 2-day symposium with an agenda dedicated to the design of AVRR programmes, the need to incorporate reintegration elements for vulnerable categories in national return migration policies, the assistance packages for the target group, and the implementation and monitoring of reintegration processes in the CoOs. In preparation of the symposium, the project will carry out assessments in the 7 CoOs on the local conditions and constraints, and will organize 2 field trips in as many CoOs for documentation and monitoring purposes. The toolkit developed under the Migrant Assistance component will be presented at the symposium and further distributed.