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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2017 - 2022

Type of practice

Project/Programme

Geographic scope

Summary

A significant number of irregular Bangladeshi migrants reside in European Union Member States (EU MS). The high level, multilateral and bilateral discussions and the urgency and impact of the massive influx of migrants and refugees to Europe resulted in the signing of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) between the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) and the European Union for return and reintegration of irregular migrates from EU MS. IOM, with the funding support from European Union and in partnership with a national NGO, got involved into the reintegration process through the project titled Bangladesh Sustainable Reintegration and Improved Migration Governance - Prottasha.

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to the sustainable reintegration of returnees and the progressive achievement of Sustainable Development Goal target 10.7 to facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed policies in Bangladesh.

The primary beneficiaries are the Bangladeshi nationals returning from EU member states and other transit countries approved by the donor.

Key activities: Immediate assistance to returnees at the airport which includes food, temporary shelter, emergency medical and psychosocial assistance; in-kind economic reintegration assistance including micro business set up, skills training, financial literacy training, and referral for financial services; medical treatment support and needs-based psychosocial counseling including trauma counselling to the returnees and their family members; referral to available social protection services; capacity development of CSO, NGO and government agencies on various issues related to reintegration and migration; development of training curriculum and awareness raising materials for community dialogues on safe migration, reintegration, and remittance management; mass public campaign on safe migration, remittance management and social reintegration; conducting relevant studies on migration and reintegration related issues.

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Partner/Donor Organizations

BRAC

Benefit and Impact

Of the beneficiaries who received economic and social reintegration support from the project, 76 per cent of them reported being economically reintegrated and 82 per cent of them reported being socially reintegrated. Overall, 80 per cent of the beneficiaries were reported being sustainably reintegrated back to their communities.

The project has also established a Public Limited Company (PLC) involving private business entities as equity partners, which is registered with the Joint Stock Exchange as the “Prottasha Community Enterprise”, with returnees enlisted as shareholders. The establishment of the community enterprises is a long-term reintegration initiative that supports income diversification of the migrant households and create economic opportunities for the community members in general.

Migration Forums (MF), formed and capacitated in 60 Upazila as a voluntary support group involving the community leaders and influential people to monitor and guide returnees for their sustainable reintegration, raise awareness on safe migration, and facilitate referral to basic social services. Selected Migration Forums are being supported to get registered under Department of Social Services (DSS) as community based voluntary organizations to ensure continuity of these services at the community level.

The immediate impact of the project interventions on the individual beneficiaries is measured through the Reintegration Sustainability Survey (RSS) and Reintegration Assistance Satisfaction Survey (RASS), which are IOM’s standardized global monitoring tools. Project also uses various other monitoring tools to measure the change in income, psychosocial wellbeing among others. To ensure sustainability and observe impact of reintegration assistance on the individual beneficiaries, it takes about 12 -18 months.

Following IOM’s Reintegration approach which promotes provision of integrated services to the returnees for sustainability considering their social, economic and psychosocial needs and vulnerabilities, several CSO/NGO and the Government agency capacitated on this approach, have initiated reintegration projects for the returning Bangladeshi migrants. Communities which are sensitized on the process of safe migration, taking pro-active role in promoting safe migration and preventing irregular migration.

Key Lessons

- Main challenges during implementation: lack of capacity of the Implementing Partner, lack of adequate ownership of the government, lack of required educational level and skill of the returnees, and establishment of a proper referral mechanism at the central and local level.

- How each challenge was overcome: Through regular and effective coordination and advocacy with the government and other counterpart, creating a platform to coordinate migration related issues with relevant agencies at the district level (DMCC), capacity building and mentoring support to the partner NGO, among others.

- What could have been done differently? Ensuring more involvement of the government counterparts from the development stage of the project to ensure their ownership and cooperation; involving private sector intensively for creating livelihood opportunities to reduce dependency on project resources and allow inclusion of higher number beneficiaries. Also, putting more focus on further strengthening coordination among different Government and non-government agencies involved in migration governance.

- What kind of follow-up was used to incorporate the lesson in related or future practices? Provided support to the bodies such as the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration and Development and its four technical working groups, assisted in drafting of relevant instruments and providing fora for consultation at different levels and with different stakeholders. Facilitated strong co-ordination to ensure limited duplication of effort.

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

Reintegration of returning migrants is challenging as many face wide spectrum of economic, social and psychosocial challenges, such as dislocation arising from extended absence or the stigma associated with unsuccessful migration experience, excessive debt incurred when preparing for their migration, unemployment and limited economic opportunities among others. Hence, reintegration programming should take an integrated approach to reintegration which addresses economic, social and psychosocial challenges of the returning migrants and their family members at the individual level.
Women migrants returning to Bangladesh after labour migration may also face social stigmatization. Additionally, women experiencing abuse overseas may also be returning with a heavy psycho-social burden, for which only few services exist. Reintegration programme need to address particular vulnerabilities and needs of the women returnees.

To ensure access to comprehensive services by the returnees, a functional coordination mechanism should be established taking whole of government and whole of society approach to optimize the utilization of the resources and services available. To achieve sustainable reintegration, close monitoring and follow up taking a case management approach is key.

Along with the individual assistances, creating enabling environment and support network at the community level, and building structural level capacities in terms of policy framework, coordination mechanism and expertise, are also important to consider for designing reintegration interventions.

Focusing on government priorities, assessing the communities to identify the local needs, and engaging government, CSO and community level actors at the designing stage are few of the prerequisites for development of the projects.

Innovation

Innovative aspects: Establishment of Reintegration Service Centers at the district level in absence of any government entities for providing similar support services to the returning migrants; development of first ever national returnee management database for registration and profiling of returning migrants; establishment of district level coordination committee on migration to ensure comprehensive information and support to migrants and returnees involving whole of society and whole of government; establishing a support network for migrants and returnees at the community level involving key community actors.

The partner NGO initiated several other projects taking the similar approach to reintegration The Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment (MoEWOE) has taken initiative to implement a project for reintegration of vulnerable returning migrants and establish welfare centers at the district level.

With the improved capacity and interest from the GO-NGO stakeholder in providing reintegration assistance, the practice is scalable.

During the COVID pandemic period, some of the services like counseling, information dissemination, identification and profiling of the beneficiaries, reintegration planning and referral to services were provided through telephonic communications. Immediate cash assistance was provided through mobile banking. Stimulus grant were provided to the project beneficiaries so that they can sustain their economic endeavors and recover from the losses incurred due to the lockdown situation. Overall coordination with partners and stakeholders were done using online platforms.

Date submitted:

03 February 2022

Disclaimer: The content of this practice reflects the views of the implementers and does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations, the United Nations Network on Migration, and its members.