Press Releases

29/10/02
NORWAY - Assisted Voluntary Return Programme
IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return programme (AVR) for failed asylum seekers launched in Oslo in May 2002 has now helped 671 people to return home.

They included migrants of 28 nationalities including Ukrainians, Yugoslavs, Croats, Bosnians, Czechs, Russians, Latvians, Slovaks and others. Some 53 different nationalities have now applied to the IOM programme for help to return home.

A further 2,329 migrants are expected to eventually travel home under the programme when IOM receives temporary travel documents from their respective embassies. About 85% of asylum seekers arrive in Norway with no documentation.

Under the AVR programme, IOM Oslo has already worked with 21 diplomatic missions in Norway and abroad to arrange the necessary travel documentation. Embassies have provided documentation to 123 migrants, and 108 applications are pending.

Last week Consular Officer of Belarus Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden travelled to Oslo to interview and issue temporary travel documents for six returnees.