Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR)

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) is one of many migration management services IOM offers to migrants and governments. It aims to enable orderly, humane and cost-effective return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in host countries and who wish to return voluntarily to their countries of origin.

AVRR assistance typically provides information, referral, and arrangement of travel to
the home location, medical screening and support towards reintegration. AVRR programmes have proven particularly effective in situations where the voluntary return option is part of a multi-pronged approach to migration management. They are, for example, a key element in responding to irregular migration in transit countries combined with other measures, such as capacity-building support and offering humanitarian assistance to stranded migrants. Similarly, IOM provides technical and other support to governments for improved management of return, and facilitates return migration dialogue among home, transit and host countries. IOM Pakistan has been implementing AVRR activities for more than a decade.

Key components include:

• Provision of relevant information to facilitate potential migrants’ decision to return.
• Reception assistance upon return.
• Short- and long-term reintegration support.

AVRR activities are implemented in collaboration with IOM missions in the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey and Australia.