In the framework of the first Presidency of Slovakia in the Council of the EU International Organization for Migration (IOM) as the EMN Coordinator for the Slovak Republic organised an international conference on Rethinking Returns from the EU: Sustainable Returns and Cooperation with Countries of Origin. The conference held on 6 - 7 July 2016 in Bratislava sought to discuss current state of play, good practice and lessons learned in return and reintegration of migrants from outside the EEA for further use by the EU and its Member States.
Among 22 speakers were experts from the European Commission, EU agency Frontex, selected EU countries, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations operating in the countries of return, as well as think tanks. The conference hosted European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, IOM Director General and the Slovak Minister of Interior as keynote panelists.
The following topics were addressed in several panels:
- Return as part of the migration management;
- Enhancing cooperation with countries of return from the EU perspective;
- Practical cooperation in achieving sustainable return and reintegration;
- Perspectives from countries of origin on return and reintegration;
- Approaches to rejected asylum seekers and migrants with challenges to return.
The conference welcomed more than 100 participants based in or representing 32 countries. Among them were representatives of state institutions and national implementing authorities, embassies, Council of the EU, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, civic initiatives, research institutes, think-tanks and universities, as well as independent experts on migration.
More information about the conference including the conference findings are available in English on emnconference.sk.
Materials from the conference for download:
Programme of the conference (384 kB)
Poster of the conference (2,21 MB)
Speakers' Bios (1, 28 MB)
Conference brochure (914 kB)
Findings of the conference (244 kB)
Photo gallery from the conference:
Photo gallery from the conference on sustainable returns and cooperation with countries of origin
Presentation for download:
Amstutz, Heather: Migration from the Horn of Africa and Yemen Region (268 kB)
Bombassei, Michele: Migration from West and Central Africa (873 kB)
Dussart, Anne: Vision: Safe, Dignified and Sustainable AVR - ERSO (2,60 MB)
Hayward, Laura: Returning Rejected Asylum Seekers: challenges and good practices (1,07 MB)
Ho, Po-Ling: European Reintegration Network (ERIN) – AMIF Specific Action (492 kB)
Javaid, Ahmed Waqas: Return and Reintegration - the Pakistan Perspective (3,78 MB)
Schuster, Liza: Forced Returns to Afghanistan - Policy Fallacies (263 kB)