The Pilot initiative to foster assisted voluntary return in Malta is a seven-month project co-funded by the European Refugee Fund (ERF), the Justice and Home Affairs Ministry and the International Organisation for Migration, (IOM).

Its aim is to establish a comprehensive mechanism for offering failed asylum seekers and others wishing to return home the possibility of returning safely and in dignity.

To achieve such an aim, the project entails a number of activities, including four training-information sessions involving government officials and social workers to promote the option of Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR). The first session will be held at The Victoria Hotel in Sliema on 17 and 18 July for one-and-a-half days of intensive discussion and exchange of experiences and practices.

AVR schemes, which have been developed by IOM in the last few decades and have been implemented in many countries, have proved to be a necessary element of any effective migration management policy.

Migration management requires a comprehensive approach, which should go beyond addressing the needs of the day, establishing measures and options with a long-term perspective. AVR services bene-fit both countries of origin and destination countries – by releasing the in-flow pressure – as well as migrants.

This project will be completed by the possibility – for the first time ever – of assisting the return and reintegration in the home country of some 40 people at present in Malta.