Hungarian Assisted Voluntary Return, Reintegration and Information Programme for Migrants (2016 - 2018)
Geographical Coverage: Hungary and various countries of origin
Duration: 01 July 2016 – 30 June 2018 (34 months)
Donor: AMIF (national allocation)
Status: Completed
Summary: IOM started operations in Hungary in 1993 and the first assisted voluntary return project was among the first activities to begin. To date IOM Budapest assisted more than 8 000 returnees.The current project will mainly build on the experience of the projects financed by the national allocation of the European Return Fund in the previous budgetary cycle, i.e. 2007-2013. The purpose of the Hungarian Assisted Voluntary Return, Reintegration and Information Programme is to: 1) provide up-to-date, easily accessible and reliable information about assisted voluntary return to potential beneficiaries and then 2) to facilitate the voluntary and orderly return of up to 870 beneficiaries, 3) to help up to 60 vulnerable returnees and returnees with chronic medical conditions during their reintegration in their countries of origin and finally 4) to collect and analyze the feedback of beneficiaries with regards to the services.
This project will consist of four components: 1) The information component will use various means of communication to reach the potential beneficiaries, such as printed info materials (posters), a dedicated multilingual website (www.volret.hu), a toll-free multilingual phone line (0680205018), and outreach visits – including presentations to staff and presentations and counselling to beneficiaries – to relevant facilities in Hungary, such as reception centers, asylum detention centers and alien policing detention centers; 2) The return component will assist beneficiaries by arranging their voluntary return (providing pre-departure assistance, obtaining travel documentation, organizing fit-to-travel medical examination, providing escorts (if necessary), purchasing travel tickets and travel insurance, providing departure, transit and arrival assistance, etc.); 3) The reintegration component will assist vulnerable returnees[i] and returnees with chronic medical conditions with their reintegration in the country of origin, by offering – based on a needs assessment – reintegration counselling and a reintegration grant from which the beneficiary can finance the various activities of a pre-defined reintegration plan; and 4) The evaluation component will include post-arrival questionnaires with beneficiaries who already returned to their country of origin, especially focusing on those who benefitted from the reintegration component. The answers will be analyzed and transformed into recommendations, based on which the programme can be further improved.
All types of assistance will be delivered in accordance with IOM policies and guidelines.
The toll-free hotline is available in nine languages.
[i] such as minors, unaccompanied minors, disabled people, elderly people, pregnant women, single parents with minor children, and persons who have been subjected to torture, rape or other serious forms of psychological, physical or sexual violence as well as returnees with chronic medical conditions.