European Reintegration Instrument: Post-arrival Reintegration Assistance to Azerbaijani Nationals Returning from Belgium, France, the Netherlands

The European Union has awarded a financial grant for the implementation of European Re-integration Instrument (ERI). One of the beneficiaries of this grant, the Dutch Repatriation and Departure Service (R&DS), approached IOM with the request to cooperate with them on the implementation of an 18-month project on post-arrival reintegration assistance to Azerbaijani nationals returning from four EU Member States, which are Belgium, France and the Netherlands. The project started on 1 June 2012, and its overall objective is to facilitate and ensure sustainable reintegration assistance for persons returned either voluntarily or non-voluntarily from the respective host countries after 1 May 2012.  

The main components include:

• Information and communication - provision of pre-departure information and profiling of potential returnees to be provided by the ERI MS staff in the host countries
• Reintegration support - post-arrival information counselling; reintegration assistance upon arrival and referral to other services available in the country to be provided by IOM Azerbaijan
• Research on and development of reintegration schemes for UAMs to be conducted by IOM Azerbaijan – an assessment report to be prepared on the existing reintegration possibilities for UAMs and referral/counselling services organized based on the results.

The project will build on existing IOM reception and reintegration structures in Azerbaijan running with the support of the authorities in various destination countries. 

Those Azerbaijanis choosing to return voluntarily will be incentivized through larger re-integration packages than those returned non-voluntarily.