Opening Remarks: IOM Regional Meeting on Return, Readmission and Reintegration

IOM Regional Meeting on Return, Readmission and Reintegration

Cairo, 18 September 2023

Opening Remarks by

Ambassador Christian Berger,

Head of the EU Delegation to Egypt

Dear Ambassador Ehab Badrawi, Assistant Foreign Minister,

Dear Mr Othman Belbeisi, Regional Director of the IOM, 

Dear Participants from the region and from Egypt,

Let me open my remarks by thanking the Government of Egypt for hosting this sub-regional dialogue which can make a valuable contribution  on migration issues.  I would like to welcome, in particular, the efforts made by all the Egyptian stakeholders in the field of migrant protection, border management and the fight against migrant smuggling networks.  We indeed value the role of Egypt to cope with the impact of the Sudan crisis.

Let me also thank the International Organisation for Migration for facilitating the organization of this meeting and giving all regional actors the opportunity to jointly identify challenges in the field of return and reintegration, to exchange best practices and to define operational recommendations to improve action in this sector.  The IOM is a long-standing partner of the EU in this crucial policy field.

I also like to express our appreciation for the support of the French government and want to stress the importance for the EU in closely associating Member States (as a Team Europe) in the implementation of all the EU actions, especially in light of the increasing number of people departing from North Africa, with serious risks for their lives.

The Central Mediterranean remains the main migratory route into the EU. In 2023 so far, illegal border crossings have almost doubled compared to the same period in 2022 and have by now exceeded the illegal border crossings detected on the route in the whole of 2022 (around 105,000 arrivals in 2022; by end of August 2023 already over 114,000 arrivals). Yesterday’s visit by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen together with the Italian Prime Minister to Lampedusa is testimony to the seriousness of the situation in the Mediterranean. 

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration is a major challenge in the region, as many migrants find themselves in an extremely vulnerable situation in their migration path and are at the mercy of criminal networks.

In this context, the EU adopted in April 2021 a Strategy on voluntary returns and reintegration, which aims to improve the quality of support provided to returnees. The strategy promotes the importance of voluntary returns, which are more humane, more effective and less costly than forced returns. The strategy aims also to address the shortcomings on the voluntary return side through more effective coordination and stronger engagement with partner countries on return, readmission and reintegration as part of the EU's broader mutually beneficial partnerships on migration with non-EU countries.

Since 2016, we have invested heavily in return and reintegration programmes to support these partner countries in their efforts. In particular, EUR 58 million were allocated through the Trust Fund for Africa to implement the EU IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant protection, Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration. We maintained our engagement through the Neighbourhood, Development and Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe with funding of EUR 60 million: this is being used to renew our strategic partnership with the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) to implement the programme, as well as to develop actions for the reintegration of North African citizens in their countries of origin, in particular with the German Cooperation (GIZ) and the French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII).

We also launched in April 2022, the Joint Reintegration Services Programme lead by Frontex. This programme enables the provision of reintegration assistance to returnees departing on a voluntary or non-voluntary basis from Member States to their countries of origin. To implement this assistance, Frontex has concluded partnerships with international and local actors operating in more than 50 countries. In Egypt a partnership was established with Lifemakers Foundation to provide very concrete support upon arrival, as well as longer term solutions towards a sustainable social and economic reintegration.

Ownership by the partner countries is key. Many stakeholders, such as governmental bodies, NGO’s, International Organisations, and the private sector are involved in the return and reintegration process. Once people have decided that they want to return voluntarily it is important that this happens swiftly without much bureaucratic hurdles. To streamline the efforts and get more effectiveness we encourage partner countries to coordinate stakeholders’ actions and develop national mechanism which can better orient and support the reintegration of migrants.

It is also crucial to establish closer bridges between return facilitation, which often is of a limited duration, and longer-term economic development assistance supported by national or international entities.

I hope this three-day workshop will be an opportunity to explore jointly those issues and to define a set of recommendations that would serve to improve our common actions on return and reintegration.