Health and Psychosocial Support

Return and reintegration can be at odds with the practice of mobility in Afghanistan. Return and reintegration is often built on a sedentary assumption, understood as a one-way process that leads to people being anchored (Natta, 2014) back in their homes. This represents a narrow view of Afghan mobility, which is in reality built on decades of crossborder...

In recent years, Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) and similar facilities have been established in both origin and host countries by Governments, NGOs and international organizations such as IOM. MRCs set up in countries of origin aim to inform, orient and train migrants in preparation for employment and stay abroad and reintegration upon returning home. In...

In the context of assisting in the transition and recovery of conflict affected societies and communities, IOM has supported disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programmes for ex-combatants/fighters and their communities of return, through more than 120 projects over the last 25 years. Primarily comprised of reintegration-related work, these...

Despite considerable efforts by governments, civil society, and communities to prevent and reduce trafficking, the trade continues, and is reportedly worsening in some areas. Trafficked persons are often subject to abuse such as rape, torture, debt bondage, unlawful confinement, and threats against their family or other persons close to them as well as other...

This report provides an update to a policy brief issued in May 2012, on the situation of migrants who returned to their home countries as a result of the conflict in Libya in 2011. Now two years after mass returns began, the aftermath of the crisis continues to reverberate in countries across Northern and Western Africa as well as beyond, in Asia. To this...

The Manual on Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergencies and Displacement describes the process IOM MHPSS programme managers should follow to design and implement relevant programmes in the aftermath of an emergency and with displaced populations. While designed for IOM MHPSS programmes, the manual was compiled with the...

The research focus has been established in collaboration with practitioners from the IOM Austria office, with whom two meetings have been organized. The meetings and the documents provided within these meetings gave access to great qualitative and quantitative data for the Austrian case, which serve as valuable sources for this paper. Based on this, this...

The global study, Invisible Women: Gendered Dimensions of Return, Reintegration and Rehabilitation, conducted in partnership with the International Civil Society Action Network, responds to a pressing need for action-oriented research that improves our understanding of women’s roles in reintegration and rehabilitation processes, and the work of women-led...

The reintegration of voluntary returnees from Finland to their countries of origin has been moderately sustainable, according to a survey conducted by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Finland. While slightly more sustainable outcomes were observed concerning social and psychosocial aspects of returnees’ reintegration, livelihood was a...

In fiscal year 2017, the Department of Homeland Security returned nearly 75,000 migrants to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. We examined U.S. efforts to help migrants reintegrate into their home countries—such as by helping them reestablish psychological, social and economic ties. Since 2014, USAID has provided about $27 million to assist returnees...

This guidance note provides ten core principles that practitioners can follow when aiming to integrate livelihoods and protection programming in urban humanitarian response, with a focus on supporting economic outcomes for beneficiaries. Key actions in programme design, illustrative performance indicators, notes on sustainability, and brief case examples are...

The report draws on field research on Afghan returnees that the Co-Founder of Samuel Hall has carried out since 2008. Beyond examining current return trends to Afghanistan and the characteristics of those returning, chiefly from Europe, it considers the return and reintegration policies employed and the obstacles that limit their effective implementation. As...

The report offers a range of recommendations to governments and others, including: Prepare migrants for reintegration prior to their return, even before deportation; issue primary ID documents from abroad or upon reception; and ensure reintegration services tap into returning migrants' cultural roots. Improving reception and reintegration services represents...

This training manual – developed by ILO and UNICEF under the UN Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking – seeks to aid governments, workers, employers, international, and non-governmental organizations that combat trafficking in children for labour, sexual and other exploitation.

Return migration is not always a ‘natural’ process or a matter of simply going home. Particularly forced migrants, who return involuntarily, face several obstacles upon return. This report argues that return can only be sustainable when returnees have the possibility to become re-embedded on an economic, social networks and psychosocial dimension. In this...

This handbook presents the determinants of migrant vulnerability (DOMV) model for analyzing and responding to migrant vulnerability. The DOMV model is specifically designed to address the protection and assistance needs of a specific subset of migrants: those who have experienced or are vulnerable to violence, exploitation, and abuse before, during or after...

The Practitioners Guide on Migration and International Human Rights Law analyses the protection afforded to migrants by international law and the means to implement it at national and international levels. The Guide synthesises and clarifies international standards on key issues, in particular: the rights and procedures connected to the way migrants enter a...

This report, prepared and conducted by Samuel Hall under the Mediterranean Sustainable Reintegration (MEASURE) Project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), outlines recommendations to support sustainable reintegration of migrants who return to their home countries in the framework of AVRR programmes. MEASURE aimed to foster the...