REINTEGR-ACTION: Pilot Initiative to Test Feasible and Sustainable Joint Reintegration Measures from the EU 

From April 2012 to September 2013, together with IOM Missions in Germany, the Netherlands and Ghana as well as governmental partners in the four participating countries, IOM Malta implemented the project ‘REINTEGR-ACTION’. Funded by the European Return Fund under Community Actions 2010, the project was aimed at enhancing cooperation between participating EU Member States (on the sending end) and Ghana (on the receiving end) through the setting up of joint mechanisms that would allow for developing and testing common reintegration strategies and tools for the sustainable reintegration of AVRR returnees to Ghana. The project had a strong focus on research as well as on linking the reintegration of individual returnees to the development of the receiving communities.

The main results of the REINTEGR-ACTION project included a research study on the socioeconomic situation, small business set-up and employment opportunities and the services available to returnees in Ghana. This was carried out in partnership with the research team from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana and contained a catalogue of detailed business plans. 31 AVRR returnees (16 from The Netherlands, 13 from Germany, and 2 from Malta) were assisted with their reintegration in Ghana. Moreover, this project contained an element of community assistance project (CAP) in its implementation which was done in close cooperation with relevant local stakeholders: on the basis of a needs assessment, support was provided towards the drilling of a communal borehole and the extension of a hospital laboratory in a selected community in the Greater Accra region.