Measures to Enhance the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration of Migrants with a Chronic Medical Condition Residing in the EU (AVRR-MC) (2014)

Geographical Coverage: The Netherlands, Hungary + Countries of Origin (Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ghana, Kosovo under UNSCR 1244, Mongolia, and Morocco

Duration: January 2013 – June 2014

Status: Completed

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 Member States, 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 countries of origin, 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 Member States and countries of origin 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 countries of origin. In preparation of the symposium, the project will carry out assessments in the 7 countries of origin on the local conditions and constraints, and will organize 2 field trips in as many countries of origin for documentation and monitoring purposes. The toolkit developed will be presented at the symposium and further distributed.