Return - IOM Publications - International Organization for Migration

Return Migration: Policies and Practices
Age Group
90-100
80 - 89
70 - 79
60 - 69
50 - 59
40 - 49
30 - 39
20 - 29
10 - 19
0 - 9
2.4 BEST PRACTICES AND LESSONS LEARNED
Assessments and Evaluations
There has been no comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of the Dutch voluntary
return policies recently. But some previous evaluations have tended to focus on specific return
projects such as the pilot project on the Facilitated Return of Rejected Asylum Seekers from
Angola and Ethiopia in February 2000. While in quantitative terms the project was regarded as
a failure, asylum seekers who returned under it successfully reintegrated through microenterprise
projects and counselling.
The Erasmus University in Rotterdam is also currently conducting an evaluation of the IOM
Netherlands’ project on Return and Reintegration of Rejected Asylum Seekers from the Southern
Caucasus and Russia. Detailed information on this assessment is not yet available.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned
FIGURE 4
RETURNS UNDER THE REAN PROGRAMME,
MIGRANTS BY SEX AND AGE GROUP: 1995-2001
-1500 -1000 -500 0 500 1000
The success of return and reintegration programmes run by the Ministry of Justice in cooperation
with IOM is evident from the voluntary return of 2,200 foreign nationals in 2002 alone.
Voluntary return programmes are seen to be much more cost-efficient than forced return and
related detention and expulsion, and are consequently encouraged. Previous return programmes
have highlighted some of the issues:
268
Male Female
Number of Migrants