Main area: Migration
Theme: Activities involving return and reintegration programmes
Assessment: Non ODA-eligible
Provider country: France
Recipient country: Various
Implementing agency: French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII)
Budget: N/A
Year(s): 2022
Purpose code: 93010
Case number: Migration / 10
Voluntary return assistance for persons who have received an obligation to leave the French territory
The French Office for Immigration and Integration (OFII) is the main operator of the Directorate General for Foreigners in France (DGEF), which designs and manages immigration and integration policies in France. Among its various missions, the OFII is responsible for participating in all administrative, health and social actions related to the return and reintegration of foreigners in their country of origin.
Foreigners wishing to return to their country of origin may request assistance from the OFII. The OFII organises the safe and dignified return to the country of origin (travel expenses, financial assistance, administrative support for the preparation of the trip). This return can take place in the chosen region of the country of origin.
The Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) scheme, as distinct from the Reintegration Assistance scheme, can be granted to people who have received an Obligation to Leave the French Territory (OQTF).
The amount of the grant is fixed: 300 € per person for visa-exempt countries, and 650 € for countries subject to a visa.
In 2022, 4981 voluntary returns were carried out following the issuance of an OQTF.
This activity is deemed non ODA-eligible. The eligibility of expenditures related to returns from the provider country is governed by the rules on in-donor refugee costs (see Criterion 5 and Figure 1). Persons having received an OQTF have not sought or were not granted asylum. According to the rules, expenditures related to rejected asylum seekers (after their application for asylum has been rejected) or expenditures for migrants are not eligible for ODA.
This work was approved and declassified by the Development Assistance Committee’s Working Party on Development Finance Statistics.
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