Assisted Voluntary Return in Finland

IOM Helsinki has arranged assisted voluntary returns from Finland for more than ten years in cooperation with various partners. For a number of years, returns were carrried out on a so-called ad hoc basis. Each return was arranged individually and on the request of a a referring partner, as for example a reception centre, who would afterwards be billed for the costs of the return. While the system was important insofar as it allowed IOM to provide a needed service, it had no provisions for information and outreach. Also, because the returns depended on the request of each partner, there was a lack of central coordination that in the worst of cases caused inequalities between returnees from partners in different parts of the country.

IOM therefore found that there was a need to develop a national, centrally managed assisted voluntary return system, providing equal assisted voluntary return and reintegration services to migrants all over Finland. IOM Helsinki consequently proposed the project Developing Assisted Voluntary Return in Finland to the European Return Fund managed by the Ministry of the Interior in 2009. Funding was granted by the European Return Fund and the Finnish Immigration Service for a three-year project that was launched on 1 January 2010.

The need for a national assisted voluntary return framework is also brought forth by the requirement of the European Return Directive, being transposed to Finnish legislation towards the end of 2010, which imposes requirements for the return procedures of third country nationals and emphasizes voluntary return as the preferred return option for third-country nationals.

Numbers and figures

Since the beginning of the project, the number of persons applying for voluntary return with IOM has been growing steadily. From 2005 to 2009 there were between 35 and 74 third country nationals returning voluntarily with assistance of IOM yearly. In 2010, the first year of the project, the number of voluntary returns increased to 234 persons. During the second year of the project, in 2011, 304 persons returned voluntarily with the assistance of IOM.

During the first year of the project, the most common area of return have been Iraq, the Russian Federation, countries and regions of the former Yugoslavian, and Afghanistan. Even so, also new areas of return have emerged that were not earlier prominent in return statistics, as for example countries in Africa.