Returning back home was a long journey

Bucharest – This family of five will start a new chapter of their story. They came to Romania from Iraq to hopefully improve their life and the one of their loved ones and in search of protection.
Now, finding themselves at the crossroads and being unable to fulfill their dreams, they reached out to IOM for support to return home under the auspices of the Assisted Voluntary Return programme (#AVR).

It's not easy to decide to leave home because you do not feel safe there anymore, no matter if it is the case of war or political persecution. You take a road full of unforeseen circumstances and hope that your courage will be enough to get settled in a new place.

Sometimes, things do not turn out the way you expected. That is when they asked IOM Romania for assistance to return back home.

The COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions put a toll on all departures that were supposed to take place this year so the family had to be very patient until flights were resumed to their country of origin.

Our colleagues from the Operations Department at IOM were in constant contact with the beneficiaries and when good news finally arrived, everybody was relieved.

The family was supported in all the pre-departure requirements and then transported to Otopeni Airport where they embarked to the next chapter of their journey.

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) is an indispensable part of a comprehensive approach to migration management aiming at orderly and humane return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in the host countries and thus wish to voluntarily return to their countries of origin.

The successful implementation of AVRR programmes requires cooperation and participation of a broad range of actors, including migrants, civil society and the governments in both host countries and countries of origin. The partnerships created by IOM and a diverse range of national and international stakeholders are essential to the effective implementation of AVRRs – from the pre-return to the reintegration stages.

The Programme for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (#AVRR) is financed through the European Union’s Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), with the support og the General Inspectorate for Immigration in Romania, code 20.01.03.01.