Over 130 Iraqi migrants return home voluntarily

A total of 134 Iraqi migrants have returned home voluntarily from Greece on 6 August. The process is part of a European Union-funded scheme aimed at decongesting the overcrowded migrant camps on the Greek islands.

The programme launched in March but was subsequently paused due to the pandemic. Migrants who agree to go back to their home countries voluntarily receive EUR 2,000 (USD 2,225) as part of the new scheme.

In 2019, nearly 10,000 Iraqi migrants and refugees have chosen to voluntarily return home from EU countries, according to The Summit Foundation for Refugee and Displaced Affairs (Lutka Foundation), a non-governmental organisation in Iraq. 

TMP _ 10/8/2020

Photo credit: Luigi Ottani
Photo caption: Migrant at the Greece-Makedonia Border Idomeni, Greece – August 2015