Voluntary Return Programme in the UK

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Non-Voluntary Return? The Politics of Return to Afghanistan

Brad K. Blitz 1 Rosemary Sales 2 Lisa Marzano 2 March 2005 in Political Studies Vol. 3
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/links/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2005.00523.x/full/

Abstract The forced removal of 35 Afghan nationals from the UK in April 2003 calls into question the viability of the government's voluntary repatriation schemes and undermines the voluntary nature of return programmes. This article draws on the results of research conducted in 2002 to explore the views of the Afghan community about return. We evaluate three motivations for promoting return programmes: justice-based arguments, where return is the 'end of the refugee cycle'; human capital explanations, which focus on individual decisions to reverse the effects of brain-drain; and burden-relieving explanations, where return is an alternative to repatriation. Our findings suggest that domestic interest based arguments, rather than those founded on the protection of human rights, are driving the policy-making agenda. Returns are portrayed as a means of relieving the burden on welfare services, and placating an increasingly anti-immigrant public opinion. As well as individuals forcibly removed from Britain, other Afghans are being urged to return by means of financial inducements, and sometimes under the threat of repatriation. In this context, we can discern a new category of 'non-voluntary' returns where individual choice has little real meaning. The forcible deportation of 35 Afghan nationals in April 2003 came hard on the heels of an announcement that only 39 Afghan people living in Britain had taken up the opportunity to return through one of the voluntary repatriation schemes organised by international agencies. These were the first deportations to Afghanistan since 1995 and they took place despite travel warnings from the Foreign Office that the country remained unsafe. 1 Human Rights organisations criticised forced returns to Afghanistan on the grounds that their timing was not informed by international human rights standards. 2 These events called into question the viability of voluntary repatriation schemes as the threat of deportation for those who did not choose to return cast doubt on their voluntary nature.