avrr-newsletter autumn2013 eng 1 · growing cities worldwide. according to the un, in 2015, lagos...

AVRR Newsletter Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Autumn 2013, Issue 9

Dear ladies and gentlemen, Dear colleagues, We are pleased to present you the autumn edition of the newsletter of IOM Vienna’s Department for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration. While our reintegration projects in Georgia and the Republic of Moldova are in the final phase and will come to a close at the end of the year, our other initiatives are in full swing. At the moment we are particularly busy with preparations for our annual “International Workshop for Return Counsellors” (3 – 4 December 2013). This event will be featured in detail in our upcoming issue. As there have been some changes in our department in the past weeks, we would like to take this opportunity to present to you the current overview of contact persons for our projects:

In this latest edition of our newsletter, we provide information about current developments, trends and challenges that we have observed in the framework of these projects. We present impressions from recent IOM monitoring missions to Georgia and Nigeria, and give insights into the projects in the Russian Federation / Chechen Republic and Pakistan. We wish you a pleasant read and a good start to the winter season! With best regards, Department for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration IOM Vienna

An insight, overview and outlook

AVRR Newsletter International Organization for Migration, Vienna Autumn 2013, Issue 9

In this issue:

Changes in the AVRR project Russian Federation / Chechen Republic (AVRR Chechnya VI) Monitoring trip to Georgia A report from Nigeria AVRR Pakistan Focus Return Counsellor

Department for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration International Organization for Migration Country Office Vienna Nibelungengasse 13/4 1010 Vienna +43 (0) 1 585 3322 22

This newsletter and the activities described within are co-funded by the European Return Fund and the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR)

Andrea Götzelmann – Head of department

[email protected] 01-585 3322 22

AVRR Afghanistan Katie Klaffenböck

Oana Timofte

[email protected] 01-585 33 22 46 [email protected]

AVRR Nigeria Evelyn Rainer [email protected] 01-585 33 22 12

AVRR Pakistan Ondine Delavelle

[email protected] 01-585 33 22 14

AVRR Russian Federation / Chechen Republic

Agata Foryś Siegfried Wöber Sabine Lang-Rosenfeld


[email protected]

01-585 33 22 35


Voluntary Return of Trafficked Persons

Katie Klaffenböck


Voluntary Return of Unaccompanied Minors

Agata Foryś


I


CHANGES IN THE AVRR PROJECT RUSSIAN FEDERATION / CHECHEN REPUBLIC (AVRR Chechnya VI)

Additional €1000 of reintegration assistance for participants that register a company in Chechnya

Most of the project participants who voluntarily return to the Russian Federation / Chechen Republic decide to use the reintegration grant to start their own business. The two most popular categories of business are subsistence farming and registered businesses for services, retail or small-scale production. For the latter category, official registration as an individual entrepreneur with the Federal Tax Service is required.

Agricultural activities (cattle, sheep or poultry breeding, beekeeping, growing vegetables or fruit, etc.) on private land do not require any formal registration. Many participants choose this option because they live in rural areas, have relevant experience, space and equipment, and they can avoid the formalities and expenses related to business registration.

Registration is obligatory for all kinds of businesses other than agricultural activities. This applies for instance to people who want to work as a self-employed bookkeeper or taxi driver, open a small shop or a café, a sewing or a hairdressing studio, or offer construction or repair services. Business registration also means more expenses related to taxes and social security contributions that every individual entrepreneur is obliged to pay. This is one of the reasons why in the past the sum of up to EUR 2000 was sometimes not sufficient to start and develop a business as an individual entrepreneur.

In order to better meet the needs of individual entrepreneurs and make more business ideas feasible, the participants who choose to start up a business that requires registration now have the possibility to apply for a second instalment of up to EUR 1000 to develop their businesses. The application can be submitted after a monitoring visit conducted by Vesta has proven that the business is operating. The final decision on whether to grant the assistance is made by IOM Vienna.

The assistance is provided in-kind and can be used to purchase goods or to pay for services required to further develop the business (e.g. additional goods or equipment, costs of rent, etc.).

In July 2013, IOM Vienna together with IOM Moscow and

the local implementing partner, the NGO Vesta, started

the new project phase for voluntary returnees to the

Russian Federation / Chechen Republic, AVRR Chechnya

VI. The project foresees the provision of reintegration

assistance for up to 110 returnees, including:

• social, economic and legal counselling

• EUR 500 assistance to cover the most immediate needs

after return

• in-kind reintegration assistance of up to EUR 2000

• additional assistance for vulnerable participants

(e.g. medical or housing assistance)

• the possibility to receive a second installment of up to

EUR 1000 for business development for

participants who run officially registered

businesses as individual entrepreneurs

© IOM 2013

A project participant in her shop in Grozny.

II

Another project participant who works as an entrepreneur in Grozny.

© IOM 2013

© IOM 2013


MONITORING TRIP TO GEORGIA Impressions of life in the Caucasus after returning home

From 29 September to 4 October 2013, a monitoring delegation consisting of Katerina Kratzmann, Andrea Götzelmann and Sophie Hofbauer of IOM Vienna and Col. Isabella Gruber of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior travelled to Georgia to visit the participants of the AVRR Georgia II project. The trip led the monitoring team to the region of Kutaisi in the West of the country as well as to villages around Duisi in the East close to the border with the Chechen Republic / Russian Federation. Altogether, the delegation was able to visit ten project participants in their places of return and to speak to each of them personally in order to get an idea of their current situation. Although all the returnees were happy to be reunited with their families again, they perceived their living conditions in Georgia as very difficult. Their income is just enough to survive and many rely on additional assistance of their relatives abroad. To date, all project participants benefited from the in-kind reintegration measures and special assistance for medication or accommodation in the framework of the project. Many said that a return without any assistance would have been very difficult. For some, the project and the chance to establish their own income were crucial factors in their decision to return voluntarily to Georgia. Most of them are working again in the same area as before: mostly milk and cheese production or cattle breeding in the countryside and private taxi business in the urban areas. The average income of project participants who have already generated an income through the reintegration measures amounts to about 400 Georgian Lari (nearly EUR 177) per month, which quite often has to suffice for a family of four.

During the monitoring mission, on-site meetings with

other organizations also took place. Gunther Zimmer,

Head of the ADA office in Tbilisi, Alexander Neumüller,

Austrian Police Attaché, Liana Mkheidze and

Tata Topadze (Caritas Georgia) as well as the head of

IOM offices in Tbilisi, Kutaisi and Telavi confirmed the

impressions of the monitoring delegation: on the one

hand, the positive impressions of the implementation of

the reintegration measures, but on the other hand the

difficult socio- economic conditions in the country.

A part of the monitoring team with a project participant in Georgia.

A REPORT FROM NIGERIA Life in a city of superlatives: "Lagos is unpredictable!"

In this issue we will briefly portray Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and describe how it affects the daily working routine of our IOM colleagues on site and the implementation of our AVRR Nigeria project. “Lagos is unpredictable” – whether said with a resound-ing laugh or followed by a bitter sigh of resignation – this is the overall picture of the megacity presented to the project team of IOM Vienna (Andrea Götzelmann and Evelyn Rainer) during their monitoring trip from 8 to 14 September 2013, which was conducted within the fourth phase of the project “Assistance for the Voluntary Return and Reintegration of Returnees to Nigeria”. Lagos has evolved from a small fishing village to a city of superlatives: The estimates regarding its population vary between 10.2 and over 18 million.¹ (...)

A settlement at the ocean in Lagos.

III

¹ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html as well as http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/DE/Aussenpolitik/Laender/Laenderinfos/01-Laender/Nigeria.html; accessed on 02.10.2013

© IOM 2013

© IOM 2013


There is no doubt whatsoever that Lagos is the biggest megacity of West Africa and one of the ten fastest growing cities worldwide. According to the UN, in 2015, Lagos may be the 3rd biggest city in the world, after Tokyo and Mumbai. Lagos is the most important finance centre in West Africa, contributing a 60% share to Nigeria’s economic growth and consuming 40% of the national electricity production.³ The rapid population increase from approximately 300,000 inhabitants in 1950 to the present numbers poses a number of challenges to the city government: the expansion of the infrastructure, namely roads, education facilities, medical care facilities, waste water and waste disposal systems, as well as an integrated transportation system (both on land and water) are considered main priorities together with improving the safety situation.

The size and population density of Lagos affect both the working conditions of our colleagues on site and the general implementation framework of the project. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that IOM colleagues in Nigeria have to spend two to three hours commuting to work. In order to avoid an even longer journey, the working population has to wake up very early to arrive at work at 7:30am at the latest, since the traffic in Lagos by day is even more unpredictable. Traffic volume in Lagos represents a considerable uncertainty factor, since our colleagues are often on the move. On the one hand, IOM Lagos offers reception assistance at the airport by picking up returnees from countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Norway or Israel; on the other hand, they accompany project participants to the local markets in order to purchase material for the respective business start-ups. For the same trip one may need ten minutes on one occasion and two hours on another occasion. Thus, for all these trips there is only one reliable time estimate: “Lagos is unpredictable!”

Another troublesome characteristic of Lagos is that real estate growth rate has not kept up with the pace of population growth; consequently, there is enormous shortage of housing. This aspect has direct implications on the implementation of reintegration projects: the costs of rent are extremely high; rental properties appropriate for small businesses will only be rented out to returnees if rent is paid for one to three years in advance. This is one of the main reasons why the reintegration assistance was raised to EUR 4000 for returnees who will participate in the project AVRR Nigeria V. Despite all these challenges, Lagos is extremely appealing to people of all classes and opens a wide range of possibilities to them. This is mirrored by the fact that 50% of all project participants in the fourth phase of the AVRR Nigeria project (Nigeria IV) chose Lagos as the place to begin their new life.

² http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagelinks.php?p=6; accessed on 02.10.2013 ³ http://www.lagosstate.gov.ng/pagelinks.php?p=6; accessed on 02.10.2013

© IOM 2013

© IOM 2013

A market scene in Lagos.

Local taxis ("Keke") in Lagos.

On the way from Lagos to Ibadan.

IV

© IOM 2013

© IOM 2013

© IOM 2013


AVRR PAKISTAN Volontary return and reintegration to Pakistan in figures

In recent years, 20-30 people per year returned voluntarily from Austria to Pakistan. However, these returnees did not benefit from any targeted reintegration assistance. In order to address this gap, a project financed by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior was initiated in December 2012. The project has the capacity to provide reintegration assistance to up to 30 Pakistanis and their families. As the available places for participants were already full in June 2013, a new reintegration project which allows the participation of up to 50 returnees, started on 1 July 2013 with co-funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior and the European Return Fund. Between 1 December 2012 and 30 September 2013, a total of 56 persons applied for participation in the project, of whom 46 are listed as active participants¹, and 31 have already returned to Pakistan. In the same period of time, a total of 39 persons, including five family members of project participants, returned volun-tarily to Pakistan with the assistance of IOM, which shows that nearly all voluntary returnees made use of the reintegration assistance.

So far, all project participants were male and returned mostly alone to Pakistan. In two cases, the main applicant returned together with dependents: in one case with his wife and minor child, and in the other case with his wife and two minor children.

Nearly all project participants decided to return to the province of Punjab, which is the most populated region of the country and where the megacity of Lahore is situated. 13% of the project participants returned or will return to the province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 5% to the region of Islamabad, and 2% the province of Azad-Kashmir.

At the time of application for the project, the majority of

the project participants (59%) were between 35 and

55 years old. A little more than one third (37%) were

between 18 and 30 years old and only two persons older

than 55 years. There were no unaccompanied minors

amongst the project participants.

The level of education of the project participants varies.

41% of all persons have completed secondary school,

22% stated that they have completed primary school,

and 15% possess a higher education. Five persons have

not completed any education, and five persons did not

indicate their highest level of education. (…)

¹ Because of personal reasons nine persons withdrew their project participation.The project application of one person was not admitted.

V


The in-kind reintegration assistance of EUR 3000 is used in different ways by the participants: The most popular activities are small-scale business start-ups or the expan-sion of existing family businesses in the fields of agricul-ture, transportation and retail trade. A quarter of the project participants decided to purchase a vehicle for taxi services and setting up or expanding an existing small farm with buffalos or chickens. Half of all participants used their assistance to set up or expand a small shop, for example for selling groceries, fertilizers, clothes, fabrics and garments, car paint, washing machines, mobile phones or spare computer parts.

When has the Refugee Unit of the Office of the Provincial Government of Carinthia, how many persons does it employ and what are their functions? Ever since the beginning of the Refugee Unit’s existence, in addition to providing accommodation, food and support to asylum seekers, recognized refugees and other foreigners, the unit has also assisted people to organize their voluntary return. Since the beginning of the year 2011, the unit has offered return counselling and comprehensive perspective counselling to people on basic welfare, asylum seekers with ongoing procedures and asylum seekers who have received a final negative decision to their asylum claim. One staff member provides return counselling and organizes the voluntary return and another staff member acts as deputy. What other areas of work does the Refugee Unit cover? According to Article 15a of the Basic Welfare Support

Agreement, the Refugee Unit of the province of Carinthia

is responsible for the basic welfare (accommodation,

care and services e.g. health insurance, information,

assistance and counselling etc.) of vulnerable asylum

seekers and foreign citizens who are allocated to

Carinthia by one of the Initial Reception Centres. The

Refugee Unit is also responsible for various integration

measures for recognized refugees, subsidiary protection

holders and other third-country nationals. Return

counselling is provided by return counsellors in English,

Russian or if required also in Serbo-Croatian or French.

If it is necessary to provide the counselling in other

languages, qualified interpreters are provided. (…)

FOCUS RETURN COUNSELLOR Conversation with Margit Uschnigg, return counsellor of the Refugee Unit of the Office of the Provincial Government of Carinthia

Margit Uschnigg at work.

© Margit Uschnissg 2013

© Margit Uschnigg 2013

Im November the first IOM Vienna monitoring trip to Pakistan took place. We will present you more information on this travel in our upcoming newsletter.

VI

Region Punjab, on the road between Islamabad and Lahore.

© IOM 2013


This newsletter and the activities described within are co-funded by the European Return Fund and the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior.

After the return counselling sessions (clarification of social, asylum and legal perspectives; information on the country of return; counselling and information about IOM reintegration projects; clarification of the return procedure and available financial assistance) and after an application for voluntary return has been submitted, preparations for the voluntary return begin (procurement of temporary travel documents, contact with embassies, support for procurement of documents and administrative procedures, transport to embassies in Vienna and Salzburg and to the airport, accompaniment to the airport in Klagenfurt and when necessary telephone stand-by until arrival at final destination). IOM Vienna staff members are responsible for the flight bookings and accompanying clients at the Vienna International Airport. How many clients per week on average receive return counselling and what are the most important countries of origin? The number of basic welfare recipients who would like to receive return counselling and return voluntarily to their home countries differs from week to week. The most significant countries of origins at the moment are the Russian Federation, Afghanistan, Iraq, Serbia/Bosnia, Kosovo, Pakistan and North African countries. What aspects of return counselling are especially important to the Refugee Unit? It is especially important that our clients in basic welfare with ongoing asylum procedures and our clients with final negative decisions to their asylum claims obtain immediate and well-founded return counselling as well as an extensive and realistic clarification of their perspectives. When clients decide to voluntarily return, it is particularly important that full support is provided throughout the entire return procedure so that the return process and the return travel itself is arranged as pleasantly as possible for the clients and above all in dignity. Are there any particular challenges faced by the Refugee Unit? Each return counselling session presents particular challenges, as it deals with human beings and their lives. However, there are some challenges that can be managed well after years of experience. How do your clients react to IOM’s projects for Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration? Generally our clients react very positively and hopefully to the respective projects in their home countries. At first clients are often skeptical for various reasons concerning the offered reintegration assistance; however, during the counselling, which normally involves numerous consultations, clients gain more trust and their expectations increase. However, when the expectations are too high, returnees might face great disappointment. The return counselling thus attempts to clarify the available forms of assistance as realistically as possible. This is done with the help of the IOM project coordinators, e.g. through the possibility of individual meetings between the clients and IOM, the provision of information materials by IOM, etc.

How well would you say do the projects cover the needs of the target group? Due to the experience gained through years of project implementation, the needs are very well covered and this improves from year to year. Clients are above all interested in the possibility to establish their own businesses. Do you stay in contact with your clients after their return? It is very often the case that clients get in touch with us, usually via email but also by telephone. What kind of suggestions do you and your colleagues have to improve the reintegration projects? The experiences and in particular the individual stories

of each project participant show that the current return

and reintegration projects are very important in assisting

the clients to start anew. The projects give the clients

courage and motivation and establish a basis for a new

beginning in their home countries. Thus, it would be

desirable from my point of view to extend reintegration

projects to more countries of origin of the clients.

The best suggestions for improvement are offered by

feedback of project participants, which can contribute to

better addressing the needs of clients from year to year.

.

VII

avrr-newsletter autumn2013 eng 1 · growing cities worldwide. according to the un, in 2015, lagos...

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