The German state of Bavaria is seeking to strengthen its reintegration support through the "Bavarian Return Program." So far, the program has supported over 3,400 people in their reintegration in their country of return.
Morocco launched a new policy guaranteeing certain basic rights for migrants and refugees nearly a decade ago. It has since offered two regularization amnesties for undocumented migrants. But with progress now stalled, many see no escape but to return to their home countries.
At the end of last week, Spain and Morocco initiated a new phase of bilateral relations between the two countries. More economic cooperation, new flight routes and a warmer political climate are planned. In return, Spain reportedly wants to fly back to Morocco migrants who do not qualify for asylum.
The Bavarian office for Asylum and Returns has helped to open a house for migrants who choose to voluntarily return to Senegal. The house, called ‘Dalal Jam’ (Welcome in Peace) is designed to welcome returnees for up to four weeks.
After fights broke out in a migrant reception camp on Cyprus on Tuesday and Wednesday, the country's Interior Minister said that repatriation would be key to easing overcrowding.
The Lithuanian authorities have reportedly paid 272 migrants €1,000 to return home. According to the Polish satellite channel Belsat, the group will leave Lithuania next week on commercial flights.
A group of 91 migrants was returned from Libya to Niger by UN migration agency IOM and Libyan authorities on Wednesday. Most of them were women and children.
The French Office of Immigration and Integration (OFII) organizes street outreach activities for homeless migrants as well as in migrant reception centers. The aim is to encourage those who have been refused asylum or those without papers to return to their countries of origin.
A video published on the website of the Maltese newspaper Times of Malta shows footage purporting to be from inside the Safi military barracks on the island nation where migrants claim they are being held for months at a time. Conditions are so bad, some are begging to be allowed to return home.
The UN migration agency carried out the first voluntary return flight in five months last week. More than 100 migrants from Ghana were flown to Accra.
A first contingent of 134 Iraqis took off from Athens on Thursday, August 6, in Greece’s first voluntary returns flight. The scheme, funded by the European Union is aimed at relieving pressure on Greece, which is struggling to cope with the amount of migrants and asylum seekers who have reached its shores.
Thousands of Ethiopian migrants have returned to their home country from Sudan, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and other countries, according to IOM. Many returned because they lost their jobs abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.