International Experiences with the Sustainable Assisted Return of Rejected Asylum Seekers

This report was commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and considers international experiences with assisted return of rejected asylum seekers from selected northern European countries. It documents lessons learned and best practices from comparable contexts and provides necessary background information for policy discussions.

The prerequisites and possibilities for creating sustainable reintegration in return contexts is provided by focusing on: (1) key aspects of sustainable return; (2) reintegration measures that facilitate sustainable return; and (3) preparation measures while prospective returnees still reside in host countries. The advantages and limitations of targeted policy instruments are evaluated.

The report follows standard definitions of sustainable return that are relative to individual and contextual outcomes. Assisted return is considered sustainable where: (1) returnees’ socio-economic status and fear of violence or persecution is no worse, relative to the population in the place of origin, one year after their return; and (2) socio-economic conditions and levels of violence and persecution are not significantly worsened by return, one year after return.

Basic levels of security are a necessary prerequisite for sustainable return and for the protection of returnees’ rights. Security levels should be evaluated both individually and locally.

An embeddedness framework is applied to guide sustainability considerations. Embeddedness measures interdependent factors of sustainable return and consists of three dimensions: (1) livelihood embeddedness, referring to the material conditions for building sustainable livelihoods; (2) social network embeddedness, which outlines access to and information on social contacts and relations; (3) psychosocial embeddedness, which is important to construct identities, to feel at home, safe and psychologically well. While most return programs focus on the first of these dimensions, expanding policy understandings of sustainability to include all three could help improve long-term outcomes of return measures.