On 12-13 May, a workshop was held in Istanbul under the National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Project Pillar (NAVRR) entitled The Way Home: Enhancing Cooperation with Countries of Origin and Destination for Advancing Turkey’s National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Mechanism.
The workshop sought to facilitate and encourage multilateral cooperation for a more humane, durable and cost-effective mechanism ensuring the safe and dignified return of migrants. The two-day event focused on countries of origin on the first day and countries of destination on the second day. It was hosted by ICMPD as implementing agency, along with the Turkish Presidency of Migration Management (PMM) and the Turkish Red Crescent (TRC), with the participation of representatives from diplomatic missions of countries of origin and destination, including, Bangladesh, Somalia, Uzbekistan and France, United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Under the moderation of ICMPD, representatives from the General Directorate of Combating Irregular Migration & Removal Affairs and the Istanbul Provincial Directorate of Migration Management presented Turkey’s NAVRR mechanism focusing on scope and implementation. The workshop continued with the presentations of TRC providing a glance at overall operations and its role within the national mechanism. ICMPD also explained its involvement in the NAVRR Project and elaborated on its scope and objectives.
In the afternoon sessions on both days, round table discussions were held with a view to explore new avenues of cooperation with countries of origin and destination.
The workshops were held under the project entitled “Supporting the Implementation and further Strengthening of Turkey’s National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration System (NAVRR Pillar 1)”, funded by the Netherlands and implemented by ICMPD in cooperation with the Presidency of Migration Management and Turkish Red Crescent.