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Assisted voluntary return: a brief legislative overview

Since 1981, international organisations have focused on the specific vulnerability of migrant women workers and their experiences of sex and gender discrimination (CEDAW, 1981). This is consistent with the UN SDGs (2015) Goal 5, on gender equality and self-determination for all women and girls, and Goal 8.8, which protects labour rights and promotes safe working environments for all workers, including migrant workers and women. The Global Compact for Migration (2017), stemming from the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (2016), aims to identify procedures and define commitments shared by the international community to improve the management of migration phenomena at the global level and enhance human mobility as an engine for sustainable development processes.

European institutions have issued important policies and regulations on vulnerable migrants, addressing the employment gap of migrant women and their effective integration into the labour market; some of the most relevant are the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility (2011), the European Agenda (2011) and Action Plan (2016) for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals (2011) and, more recently, the New Pact on Migration and Asylum (2020), the Council of Europe's Gender Equality Strategy (2018-2023) and the Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027 (2020). In Italy, legislation provides for a specific legal measure to offer migrants the possibility to return home.

AVR&R (Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration) programmes are promoted by the Ministry of the Interior, with national and European funding, and their implementation is entrusted to international and civil sector organisations. In order to facilitate the socio-occupational reintegration of the migrant, AVR&R projects are accessible on a voluntary basis; they offer support in the reintegration process, coverage of travel expenses, medical assistance, a cash allowance and an economic contribution in goods and services in the country of origin.

In 2021, the EU launched a new strategy for AVR&R programmes (COM /2021/ 120 final), which aims at more effective coordination between all stakeholders, return and reintegration of migrants both from and between third countries, more efficient return counselling and sustainability of reintegration. In the 2014-2021 multiannual framework, the EU supported return and reintegration programmes, covering 75% of project costs, although there were often dead times. If the financial resources foreseen in the new 2021-2027 framework are not made readily available, if calls for implementation are not published in a timely manner, and if the impact of the measures is not evaluated, it is very likely that this cyclical inactivity will be repeated at the end of 2022.

Assisted voluntary return: a brief legislative overview

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