Reintegrating returning migrants in Sudan

The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN migration agency, has reported helping 615 Sudanese migrants return home voluntarily from Libya between June 2017 and March 2018.

Once the migrants return home from Libya through IOM’s voluntary humanitarian return assistance programme, they are given assistance to deal psychologically with what they have experienced. Support is also provided to help the migrants create a plan for their future reintegration into their communities.

Migrants travelling to Libya often find themselves in abusive and life threatening situations, and are subjected to captivity, extreme violence, torture and slave labour.

In one of many incidents, a video of a group of Sudanese men being burned and whipped in Libya went viral on social media in March. The captors had sent the torture videos to extort thousands of dollars from the migrants’ families. The Sudanese Government condemned the abuse and demanded immediate assistance be provided to its nationals, who were then located and feed by Libyan forces.

Along with Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians, Sudanese migrants enter Libya in hopes of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. “The continuous migration challenges that the world is facing can only be dealt with through more collaborative efforts and partnerships,” said Ambassador Dr. Karar Al-Tuhami, Secretary General of the Secretariat for Sudanese Working Abroad.

“We are dedicated to the success of this project and its approach to reintegration, including the involvement of communities to which migrants return. We are hopeful that it will support the reintegration of Sudanese migrants, especially youth, in a way that helps them have a real choice about whether to migrate again in future,” Al-Tuhami added.

The IOM supports returnees in their attempts to restart their lives in Sudan through a comprehensive reintegration approach that benefits both migrants and their communities. The programme also contributes to local development and mitigates some of the factors driving irregular migration.

An important component of the reintegration approach taken by IOM is counselling, which provides mental health and psychosocial support to returning migrants. There is also counselling provided to start developing returnee plans for reintegration.

Since 17 April 2018, some 109 returnees, who have been provided with reintegration counselling, will soon begin business and skills development training provided by IOM.

“Through working with Sudanese returnees from Libya, I have come to realise the damage their journey has caused to their mental health,” said Rawan Hamid, IOM Sudan’s Cultural Orientation and Psychosocial Support Coordinator.

“Being exposed to trauma, all sorts of physical abuse in detention and reaching home empty handed with only shattered dreams, we see the utter importance of providing immediate psychosocial support and psychological intervention upon arrival,” Hamid added.

“As we help more Sudanese migrants get home safely, we know that these collective efforts will lead to a stronger support structure in the country to help them with the transition home and reintegrate well into their communities of return,” said Linda Onias, IOM Sudan Reintegration Officer.

TMP: 23/07/2018

Photo credit: IOM. Photo caption: Sudanese migrants returning home