Objectives

This cross-regional seminar on the return and reintegration of children and their families aimed to draw particular attention to the unique experiences and needs of children returnees and to offer a space for discussion among return and reintegration experts, practitioners and policymakers.

It was structured around three main topics: operationalization of protection frameworks, practical tools, and good practices and lessons learnt in the field of child return and reintegration, allowing to tackle this subject from various angles. 

The seminar brought together representatives of governments, EU institutions, international organisations, CSOs, NGOs and the academia to exchange good practices, identify challenges and lessons learned as well as opportunities to strengthen efforts on the return and reintegration of children and their families. 

Background

The cross-regional seminar on return and reintegration of children and their families is organized under the framework of the EU-IOM Knowledge Management Hub (KMH). The KMH was established in September 2017 in the framework of the Pilot Action on Voluntary Return and Sustainable, Community-Based Reintegration funded by the European Union (EU) to strengthen learning across return and reintegration programmes, and support the harmonization of approaches, processes and tools under the EU-IOM Actions in support of migrant protection and sustainable reintegration and beyond. 

As part of its component on setting-up knowledge management tools, three cross-regional knowledge sharing workshops have been foreseen. The first workshop on sustainable reintegration was co-organized with the AU and EU in November 2018. Two other topics include the current one on the return and reintegration of children and their families as well as the third workshop on lessons learnt from the EU-IOM Actions.

Visit the French version of this page to access the recordings of the three sessions in French.