Migrant Protection and Assistance

Through its Migrant Protection and Assistance Division (MPA), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) works to realize IOM’s commitment to address the needs, as well as promote and uphold the rights of migrants. MPA supports these individuals and communities to access and exercise their rights. It also offers support to governments in carrying out their duties to respect, protect and fulfil these rights, thus contributing to managing in line with international standards and practices. 

EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration

The Joint Initiative aims to contribute to strengthening the governance of migration and the sustainable reintegration of returning migrants in The Gambia.

Interventions include:

• Building the capacities of government and local stakeholders on migration governance, sustainable reintegration of returning migrants and ownership of reintegration activities at the national level;
• Protecting vulnerable migrants;
• Providing reintegration assistance to returning Gambians;
• Conducting awareness raising and sensitization activities targeting the general public on the risks of and the alternatives to irregular migration;
• Collecting and analysing data on migration.

Donor: The European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF)

Strengthening Sustainable and Holistic Reintegration of Returnees in The Gambia

A joint project with the International Trade Centre (ITC) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the aim is to strengthen the foundations for peace by fostering positive economic and social interdependence between returning migrants and host community members, as well as facilitating sustainable reintegration that will contribute to enhanced social cohesion.

IOM’s focus is on three key areas:

• Establishment and support to the National Coordination Mechanism on Migration (NCM)
• Enhanced mental health and psychosocial support services for returning migrants through community outreach health teams, capacity building of national and local actors, and establishment of migrant peer support groups
• Establishment of community-based reintegration projects

Donor: UN Peacebuilding Fund

Bilateral Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) Programmes

Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) is an indispensable part of a comprehensive approach to migration management, aiming at orderly and humane return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in host or transit countries and wish to return voluntarily to their countries of origin.

IOM provides AVRR support in collaboration with other IOM missions in countries hosting Gambian migrants. In The Gambia, IOM also participates in pilot services aimed at providing improved AVRR-related assistance, including virtual pre-departure counselling and remote psychosocial support.

Donors: Swiss State Secretariat for Migration; German Federal Foreign Office; and others