Posts in WP9/Alternative Pathways
Rethinking Alternatives to Migrant Returns: Comparative Insights from Greece, Germany, and Turkey and the Human Rights Trade-Offs

Return has become a central pillar of contemporary migration governance in Europe, yet actual removal rates remain low, producing a persistent gap between the large numbers of non‑EU citizens ordered to leave and the much smaller share who are effectively returned. Against this backdrop, this concept note…

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The Cost of Coerced Returns in Germany

The report examines how the financial and administrative costs of coerced returns in Germany are high, complex, and systematically under-documented. It distinguishes between direct costs (such as implementation of return and reintegration programmes, deportation operations, detention, transportation, and escorts) and indirect costs (including the loss of prior integration investments, labour market impacts, and wider social effects), showing that available data do not allow for a genuine cost‑benefit analysis.

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Political and Human Rights Trade-offs: The Case of Iraq-Sweden and Iraq-Germany Assisted Return Frameworks

This report examines how European return policies towards Iraqi migrants generate trade‑offs between state interests in migration control and the protection of fundamental human rights within return programmes. It explores return cases from Sweden and Germany, focusing on Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) schemes and how these are incorporated within…

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