Paying Migrants to Go Back Home Fails: Euronews

Migration from Africa to Europe is treacherous, yet many are still desperate to flee poverty, repression, conflict and hunger. Euronews describes one man’s experiences traveling through multiple countries, endurig a Mediterranean shipwreck, a gunshot wound, and two years of abuse and torture in a Libyan detention center. Families and friends shun some who return home and failing to send remittances. A €357 million Joint Initiative of the International Organization for Migration, linked to the United Nations, and the European Union offers migrants a flight home, with promises of a stipend and reintegration counseling. “But a Euronews investigation across seven African nations has revealed massive failings in the programme, considered to be the EU’s flagship response to stopping migrants trying to get to Europe,” report Lillo Montalto Monella and Sara Creta. Some migrants report the stipends do not materialize. “IOM’s own statistics on returnees to Sudan reveal that only 766 out of over 2,600 have received economic support.” Two-thirds of migrants do not complete reintegration programs, and migrants confide they plan to use whatever funds they do receive to try and reach Europe again. – YaleGlobal