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Facilitating the return of the most vulnerable Mongolians stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing enhanced reintegration assistance through vocational training courses, access to job placements and basic services.

Primary GCM Objectives

GCM Guiding Principles*

*All practices are to uphold the ten guiding principles of the GCM. This practice particularly exemplifies these listed principles.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Dates

2020 - 2021

Type of practice

Partnership/Multistakeholder initiative

Geographic scope

Country:

Mongolia

Regions:

Asia

Sub Regions:

East Asia

Summary

The complete ban on all border crossings since early March 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak has had a major impact on Mongolians who have been stranded abroad. Over 30,000 Mongolians have requested immediate return to Mongolia, of which many were in a particularly vulnerable situation.

The return pathways organized by the State Emergency Commission (SEC) required returnees to be compliant with government vulnerability criteria and cover all necessary costs for flight/ground transportation, and quarantine costs by themselves. The vulnerability criteria set by the SEC included people with poor health conditions; pregnant women; families with children under 14 years old; people with disability; and people over 60 years old. However, most of the vulnerable Mongolians abroad have faced financial constraints due to job loss during the pandemic, or challenges finding work since many were in an irregular situation and couldn’t return using the above-mentioned pathways. With more time passing, vulnerable Mongolians abroad were forced to use personal savings, sell property, amass debt, and accept arrangements that are detrimental to their interests. The situation of those was deteriorating and their vulnerabilities reflected in the worst way on their children and cannot cover basic needs.

Therefore, MFA, in cooperation with IOM Mongolia and IOM sending missions, provided immediate return assistance to and saved lives of over 1000 most vulnerable Mongolian citizens stranded abroad due to COVID-19. When facilitating the return of Mongolians abroad, the MFA and IOM have jointly developed “The Standard Operating Procedures for Return Assistance of Stranded Migrants during COVID-19 Outbreak” (SOP), which was based extensively on similar instruments used by IOM missions in other countries and worked as a transfer of knowledge, experience and best practices, and significantly improved the cooperation between IOM and the Government of Mongolia and manifested itself in hundreds of stranded Mongolians successfully returned.

Utilizing the SOP, the diplomatic missions of Mongolia along with IOM sending missions have conducted vulnerability assessments and identified a comprehensive list of vulnerable stranded Mongolians in dire need of assistance. Some of the returnees’ situation had deteriorated long before they were identified and needed assistance before the repatriations, therefore, based on consultations between MFA and IOM, the most vulnerable Mongolians received cash assistance to cover basic needs. Upon return, many of the vulnerable returnees have struggled to reintegrate into society, particularly finding employment. Hence, to provide enhanced reintegration services to returnees, IOM has developed free-of-charge online training courses for skill development and opening businesses, which has been largely supported by the Municipality of Ulaanbaatar (MUB) and been placed on the public training platform of MUB to allow wider access for all returnees and citizens.

Organizations

Main Implementing Organization(s)

Government of Mongolia

Detailed Information

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia

Partner/Donor Organizations

IOM Mongolia
IOM Sending missions
UN agencies
State Emergency Commission of Mongolia - SEC
Municipality of Ulaanbaatar - MUB

Benefit and Impact

This initiative has responded to the most important priority of the Government as identified in the UN Mongolia Socio-Economic Response Plan (SERP) and the Government COVID-19 Action Plan, which aims to ensure the safe return of the most vulnerable Mongolians abroad, especially children and their families stranded abroad due to COVID-19. Wellbeing of over 1,102 Mongolian citizens were enhanced through safe return and reintegration, of which 143 were children who have struggled the most when the livelihoods of the families deteriorated due to socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and experienced school closures for extended periods, 581 were women who have lost jobs given that many Mongolian women abroad work at service sectors that were shut down the most during the COVID-19 restrictions or experienced increased pressure of taking care of the (out of school) children at home while working. Impacts of this initiative were measured by the number of returnees repatriated and supported with reintegration support. This initiative has been continuing with constant support from the MFA and various projects of IOM taking on interventions related to repatriation. As the COVID-19 threat is still persistent worldwide, there are still vulnerable Mongolians stranded abroad requesting for return.

The online and self-paced capacity building trainings allowed returnees to receive up-to-date information on how to start a new business, expand existing ones, and practical knowledge and skills for improving employability with official certificates validated by the MUB. Given that in Mongolia, certificated trainings are mostly of high cost and at times not acknowledged by employers, we believe this initiative would concretely benefit returnees in finding employment.

Key Lessons

Due to a spike in local transmission of COVID-19 in Mongolia, several charter flights were cancelled/delayed. However, there were many returnees who were waiting to return and thus quit their jobs, suspended their rental contracts, etc. Therefore, when the flights were suddenly cancelled, they were left with no place to stay and no means to earn their living. In response to these challenges, there were civil society demonstrations at the Diplomatic missions of Mongolia, requesting an urgent return and continuance of charter flights. With the active support and coordination from IOM, MFA supported the return of vulnerable Mongolians abroad during the challenging times by arranging the transportation prior to the charter flight cancellations or right after the charter flight continuance, to reduce the negative impact of flight cancellations on vulnerable Mongolians.
During the first several months of the local outbreak, there was an increased stigma and discrimination among the public towards the infected cases, as well as returnees from abroad who were often criticized for bringing the pandemic infection to Mongolia. Therefore, a comprehensive anti-stigma campaign was organized with leadership from IOM and great support from the Government of Mongolia and UN agencies, to reduce stigmatization towards infected people, as well as first contacts.

Recommendations(if the practice is to be replicated)

During these unprecedented and unpredictable times, flexibility is the key to success as this type of intervention requires urgent actions. Thus, flexibility shall be upheld at all stages and with all parties. Moreover, for crisis response, whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, cooperation and mutual support were vital. For the repatriations, we’ve received funding and other types of support from Diplomatic missions, UN agencies and IOM COVID Task Force, and most importantly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia has covered the quarantine costs of the returnees which was one of the biggest factors in repatriating more vulnerable people and making this intervention a success.

Innovation

The development of “The Standard Operating Procedures for Return Assistance of Stranded Migrants during COVID-19 Outbreak” was an innovative and successful approach in increasing the transparency of the return operations by the State Emergency Commission of Mongolia. As a result, government entities were able to coordinate the repatriations in a rapid, efficient, and transparent manner delivering high-quality assistance to stranded Mongolian citizens. The training courses developed for returnees for enhanced reintegration included not only business skills, but also reintegration orientation courses, computer literacy and working in online environment training and employability and job-hunting skills training, which were determined as most necessary by the returnees.
The most important innovative approach utilized was mobilization and support from IOM missions in various countries where Mongolians were stranded, as well as full coordination from the diplomatic missions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia abroad and the Governments of sending countries. All these stakeholders ensured full cooperation and support during these challenging times in all countries, which has allowed this initiative to save over 1000 most vulnerable people’s lives.

Media

Шилжин суурьшигчийн түүх

Date submitted:

04 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.

 

 

*References to Kosovo shall be understood to be in the context of United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 (1999).