Webinar: Rethinking and Restarting: What should the returns process look like post-pandemic?
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COVID-19-related border closures, travel restrictions, and uncertainties as to how to safeguard the health of returnees and their receiving communities have paralysed the migrant-return system across the globe. With a few notable exceptions, such as the United States and Sweden, most countries have halted the return of rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants, including overstayers, to their countries of origin until further notice. Authorities have paused or postponed return or removal orders, shifted to automatic renewal of immigration permits and, in some cases, opted to release migrants awaiting their return from closed detention centres (e.g., in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom). Furthermore, the return process was already plagued by problems of low return rates, controversial returns, and overly ambitious reintegration goals. |