At a glance

This checklist is intended to be a practical resource to be used by Governments and other stakeholders in assessing current practices and policies, and also guiding design, implementation, and monitoring of processes and procedures related to return and reintegration, in order to assist them in putting the GCM into practice.

What it offers

The Checklist presents a range of actions against which Governments and other stakeholders can assess whether their return and reintegration activities are consistent with the GCM and can draw on best practices. It is intended to be a practical resource for use across the stages of (i) Pre-Return, (ii) Return and (iii) Post-return and Reintegration. This is done by:

• Providing an overview of the return and reintegration cycle, capturing a snapshot of key legal frameworks to be respected, and introducing the GCM’s guiding principles, and  
• Offering a practical checklist to be used by Governments and other stakeholders to assess their return, readmission and reintegration practices and policies, and support them in designing, implementing, or monitoring processes and procedures related to safe and dignified return and sustainable reintegration.  

The checklist is not intended to be used as a monitoring and evaluation framework, or to grade countries on their current return and reintegration activities, though it may be useful in helping to better understand areas where current return and reintegration procedures or programming could be strengthened.

Further information

This paper was drafted by Return and Reintegration Working Group Co-leads (IOM, OHCHR, UNICEF), reviewed by Return and Reintegration Working Group Members (FAO, ILO, UN-Habitat, UNDP, UNHCR, UNU, WFP, Alianza Americas, APRRN, Catalyze Change, GANHRI, Global Detention Project, ICRC, Initiative for Child Rights in the  Global Compacts, IOE, ISS, Jill Alpes (researcher), MPI, NRC, PICUM, Post Deportation Monitoring Network, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants). 

While distinct products, the position paper and mapping and checklist are meant to provide a 'package' to assist States and other stakeholders to operationalize GCM objectives related to return, readmission and reintegration.