{"id":8596,"date":"2021-10-22T16:19:48","date_gmt":"2021-10-22T14:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/?p=8596"},"modified":"2021-10-29T11:50:56","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T09:50:56","slug":"unsustainable-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/articles\/unsustainable-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"(Un)sustainable returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

While return is often conceptualised as the final stage of a migration journey, it can actually be a stepping-stone towards internal displacement<\/a> or secondary migration. In this article, building on recent research<\/a> by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), we follow in the footsteps of a Nigerian migrant to uncover the challenges he experienced abroad and upon return to his country of origin.<\/p>\n

Dele (not his real name) left Nigeria as a teenager in search of new opportunities. \u201cI left because I couldn\u2019t continue suffering,\u201d he explains. \u201cI looked at my family and saw that there was nothing they could do to help me. My father couldn\u2019t send me to school, and I couldn\u2019t continue farming because it wasn\u2019t yielding much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dele hoped to travel to Italy, so he set out along the Central Mediterranean route<\/a>. He was not alone in doing so: in 2016, over half a million Nigerians<\/a> are thought to have crossed the Sahara in a bid to reach Europe. As for many other migrants attempting to reach European shores, Dele\u2019s journey ended in Libya after being deceived by his smuggler<\/a>. Despite the number of Nigerians that have attempted the journey, just over 18,000 Nigerians<\/a> arrived by boat in Italy in 2017.<\/p>\n

Forced labour, abuse, and arbitrary detention are common risks<\/a> for migrants in Libya; women in particular are also exposed to a high risk of sexual exploitation. \u201cStaying in Libya was a terrible experience,\u201d Dele recalls. \u00a0\u201cWe were threatened and some of my friends killed. They mistreated us and gave us hard work. They didn\u2019t pay us. They threatened us with guns and even shot at us at times; I saw my friends being shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

After more than three years, Dele eventually managed to save enough money to attempt the crossing to Italy. \u201cOn the way, we heard a loud bang: it was our boat that burst, and we all fell into the sea. I couldn\u2019t swim but I was on a plank holding onto it tightly,\u201d he remembers. The Central Mediterranean route is one of the deadliest:\u00a0 over 14,000 lives<\/a> were lost at sea between 2015 and 2020. Dele was rescued by a passing fishing boat, but at a cost: \u201cthe fishermen sold us to some people who took us to a camp, and asked us to call our people to send money to them. People who couldn\u2019t reach out to any of their relatives and those who said they didn\u2019t have money were killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a widespread practice known as tranke<\/em>, many migrants in Libya are kidnapped<\/a> and held for ransom, often as soon as they enter the country. Eventually, Dele\u2019s kidnappers handed him over to a Libyan detention centre, where pervasive human rights violations<\/a>, including unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment are well documented. It was there that he was found by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and given the opportunity to return to Nigeria.<\/p>\n

IOM\u2019s Voluntary Humanitarian Return<\/a> (VHR) programme was launched in 2017 with funding from the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa in response to the abuses faced by migrants in Libya\u2019s detention centres. In 2019, over 3,700 Nigerians<\/a> were returned from Libya through VHR. Participation in the programme is voluntary, although migrants generally have no other alternative<\/a> beyond continued detention and abuse. Given conditions in detention, return can be a life-saving measure. The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted opportunities for return: only 284 vulnerable migrants<\/a> in Libya were returned to Nigeria in 2020.<\/p>\n

The benefits of IOM\u2019s assisted voluntary return programmes, including VHR, extend beyond return to the country of origin. Reintegration assistance<\/a> generally involves an initial cash handout of approximately 100 USD, followed at a later stage by vocational training and in-kind start-up assistance amounting to approximately 1,000 USD per person to set up a new business, often in partnership with other returnees.<\/p>\n

Despite the initial assistance provided by IOM, Dele struggled to make ends meet upon arrival in Nigeria. Having accumulated high levels of debt<\/a> to finance their migratory projects, many returning migrants find themselves effectively destitute upon return to Nigeria. Financial vulnerability undermines returning migrants\u2019 ability to secure stable accommodation, exposing them to a heightened risk of homelessness and internal displacement<\/a>. Dele rapidly ended up on the street. \u201cI was like a newborn baby because I was broke. I stayed with a friend when I got back, but his landlord sent him packing and I had nowhere to go, so I slept in metal containers at night and went to work at building sites in the morning.\u201d Like Dele, some returnees are internally displaced as a result of evictions; others are forced to leave their housing because of insecurity and natural hazards in cities\u2019 most affordable neighbourhoods. Those who originate from insecure parts of the country, including much of the North-East and Middle-Belt, may be internally displaced by conflict and violence<\/a> upon return to their area of origin.<\/p>\n

Prospects improved for Dele after receiving support from IOM to set up a new business, but not all returning migrants avail themselves of reintegration assistance: of the 12,000 migrants<\/a> who returned to Nigeria with IOM\u2019s support between May 2017 and February 2019, just 36% received individual or collective reintegration assistance in the form of in-kind support for business. Some are unreachable after return; others are disheartened by the costs and delays<\/a> in obtaining start-up funding.<\/p>\n

Returning migrants continue to face numerous reintegration challenges<\/a>, even after receiving assistance. Dele now runs a barber salon in Lagos, but new businesses do not immediately generate sufficient profits to meet the basic needs of returning migrants. The stigma many experience after returning to Nigeria compounds the problem. However, Dele remains optimistic. \u201cI believe that since I am still alive, things will definitely work out,\u201d he says. Yet, like many other returning migrants<\/a>, he still hopes to one day reach Europe.<\/p>\n

The EU Trust Fund for Africa, which was established at the Valletta Summit in 2015 in response to the so-called refugee crisis, allocated resources to promote the voluntary return of migrants through the EU-IOM Joint Initiative<\/a> for Migrant Protection and Reintegration, set up in 2016. That year, under the European Agenda on Migration, the Partnership Framework<\/a> called for a measurable increase in the number and rate of returns and readmissions. This emphasis on returns was reinforced by the Malta Declaration<\/a> in 2017, which called for increased support for assisted voluntary return programmes. As we have seen in this article however, more efforts are needed to ensure the sustainability of return and reduce the risk of internal displacement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While return is often conceptualised as the final stage of a migration journey, it can actually be a stepping-stone towards internal displacement or secondary migration. In this article, building on recent research by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), we follow in the footsteps of a Nigerian migrant to uncover the challenges he experienced abroad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[187,86,88,91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drivers-of-migration","category-policy","category-protection-and-risks","category-returns","region-europe","region-west-africa","country-libya","country-nigeria","writer-chloe-sydney-researcher-at-the-internal-displacement-monitoring-centre"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8601,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8596\/revisions\/8601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.maisoninteractive.com\/mixedmigrationcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}