Reintegrating Irregular migrants to their origin countries

Jagjeet (Name Changed) reached Belgium without proper documentation, Visa, Job, or any insurance. He used to do small pitty jobs and sleep on the streets. His health started deteriorating but did not have proper finance to treat himself neither he had sufficient money to return back. Under the European Reintegration Network (ERIN) programme, Jagjeet was identified for enhanced reintegration support under the vulnerable returnee. He was successfully reintegrated with his family and getting treatment for his ailments.

Reintegration support had helped irregular migrants to connect and re-adapt with the new environment in country of origin. Caritas India provides reintegration support to the returnee and enables them to have dignified lives through a network of charitable organization working for the refugees and asylum seekers from UK and European countries.

A partner exchange visit of European Reintegration Network (ERIN) programme was organized to provide clear picture of reintegration process with emphasis on the challenges and sustainable reintegration in countries of origin. Representatives of 13 partners Countries of Return Reintegration, 7 European Reintegration Support Organizations (ERSO) partners and reintegration counsellor of Belgium attended the meeting held at Brussels from October 2-6, 2017.

Dr. Ine Lietaert from Centre for the Social Study of Migration presented the study perspective on return migration highlighted the changes of reintegration support policy for Belgian assisted voluntary return programmes. It was observed that the reintegration support since 1984 has changed, initially it was only the travel cost support, then in 2006 the reintegration support was raised to 700 Euros and in 2013 it was fixed to 1500 Euros for enhanced reintegration support for vulnerable returnees.

Catherine Kune, Programme Officer – Assisted Voluntary Return programme of Caritas India raised the need for proper documentation of returnee profile and monitoring visit support as key components for sustainable reintegration of the irregular migrants. Based on the local context, the social implication of community reintegration and sustaining micro- business with limited finance (Specifically Belgium Returnees) are the two main reintegration challenges highlighted by Caritas India during the meeting.

It was also realized that pre-departure contact with the irregular migrants plays an important role in building trust, transparency and accountability between the returnee and Overseas reintegration partners during the post reintegration process.

The exchange between the Overseas reintegration partners and Reintegration Counselors had provided good insight on the post reintegration process in the countries of return.  All the partners from Countries of Return and Caritas International Belgium join hands to support the Global campaign on Migration #ShareJourney to signify Safe migration.