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Dear participant,

We are delighted to welcome you in Bratislava at the European Migration Network (EMN) Conference on Rethinking Returns from the EU: Sustainable Returns and Cooperation with Countries of Origin.

The conference seeks to discuss current state of play in return and further practical cooperation with countries of return by bringing together European policy-makers and practitioners from the EU Member States, EU institutions and agencies, EU-funded cooperation projects, inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental sector, academia as well as countries of origin. European return policy and measures will be put into the broader context of current migration trends and realities as well as of situation in the countries of return in order to contribute to further EU policy-making in this area.

The conference collects best practices and lessons learned from various stakeholders for further use by the EU, its Member States and Norway. It builds upon the latest policy developments and EU legislation in the field of return and reintegration; foremost the European Agenda on Migration, EU Action Plan on Return and European Council’s Conclusions adopted on 15 October 2015; as well as upon the Programme of the Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU. As Slovakia follows up on the Netherlands’ endeavours and results achieved in the return agenda, the conference held in the wake of the Slovak Presidency aims to bridge this process.

Thank you for contributing to our event by your participation. We hope it will be an enriching experience.

Slovak EMN National Contact Point team

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Contents

About the EMN Conference 2016 .................................................... 3

Programme ...................................................................................... 4

6 July 2016 – Day 1 ........................................................................ 4

7 July 2016 – Day 2 ........................................................................ 8

Speakers and Chairs ....................................................................... 10

Notes ............................................................................................. 28

Migration in the EU and its Member States ................................... 32

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About the EMN Conference 2016

Topics

In several panel discussions, speakers from the European Commission, EU agency Frontex, selected EU countries, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations operating in non-EU countries, as well as think tanks present their inputs on the following topics:

• Current migration situation in Europe and the role of the EU return policy amidst of it;

• Enhancing cooperation with countries of return from the EU perspective;

• Practical cooperation in achieving sustainable return and reintegration; • Perspectives from countries of origin on return and reintegration; • Approaches to rejected asylum seekers and migrants with challenges

to return.

Organisers and Partners

The conference is organised within the framework of the European Migration Network (EMN) under the first Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU (www.eu2016.sk). The event is hosted by IOM Bratislava as the coordinator of EMN activities in Slovakia in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic and the European Commission (DG Migration and Home Affairs).

EMN (Annual) Conferences

The EMN (Annual) Conferences are high-level events organised by the EMN National Contact Points in connection with their Member State's Presidency of the Council of the EU. The events serve to promote cooperation and networking by engaging with policy-makers and practitioners at EU and national levels. They aim to highlight and create synergies with the work of other EU and national institutions and agencies relevant to the conference theme.

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Programme 6 JULY 2016 - DAY 1

09.00 – 09.30 Registration and refreshment

09.30 - 10.00 Opening and Keynote Speeches

Robert Kaliňák, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Interior of the

Slovak Republic

William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International

Organization for Migration (IOM)

10.00 - 11.30 Panel I. Enhancing cooperation with countries of return from

the EU perspective

Main questions/issues:

Current policies, mechanisms and operational measures in the

field of return and reintegration

Enhancing effectiveness of the EU return system based on best

practices and lessons learned

Challenges and future steps in light of the latest developments

Chaired by Zuzana Vatráľová, Head of the IOM Office in the Slovak Republic

Panellists:

Olivier Onidi, Deputy Director General, Directorate-General for

Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission, Belgium

Berndt Körner, Deputy Executive Director, FRONTEX, Poland

Walter Oostelbos, Strategic Policy Advisor, Ministry of Security

and Justice, Netherlands

Igor Slobodník, Ambassador-at-Large for Migration, Ministry of

Foreign and European Affairs, Slovak Republic

Questions/discussion

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11.30 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 14.30 Panel II. Practical cooperation in achieving sustainable return

and reintegration

Main questions/issues:

Ways to enhance sustainability and efficiency of return and

reintegration schemes

Feasibility of AVR(R) harmonisation: services, sums, target groups

and packages according to countries of return

Role of monitoring and evaluation in measuring performance of

return and reintegration programmes

Synergy of development cooperation with return and

reintegration policies and its impact on sustainability

Chaired by Erlend Paasche, Researcher on Return Migration, Norway

Panellists:

Nassim Majidi, Co-Founder & Co-Director, Samuel Hall, Kenya

(video contribution)

Anh Nguyen, Head of Migrant Assistance Division, IOM

Headquarters, Switzerland

Anne Dussart, Asylum and Migration Director of Caritas

International & Member of the Steering Committee at European

Reintegration Support Organisations (ERSO), Belgium

Po Ling Ho, Programme Manager, European Reintegration

Network (ERIN), Netherlands

Isabelle Wahedová, Czech expert seconded as International

Cooperation Officer at Asylum and Migration Thematic Unit,

Directorate-General for International Cooperation and

Development, European Commission, Belgium

Questions/discussion

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14.30 - 15.00 Coffee break

15.00 - 16.30 Panel III. Perspectives from countries of origin on return and

reintegration

Main questions/issues

Challenges in and impact of return and reintegration programmes

on countries of origin and transit

Post-return counselling and assistance

The role of local communities and diaspora

Understanding migrants’ decision-making and its relevance for

European policy-making

Best practices and regional cooperation

Chaired by Erlend Paasche, Researcher on Return Migration, Norway

Panellists:

Michele Bombassei, Regional Migrant Assistance Specialist, IOM

Regional Office for West and Central Africa, Senegal

Heather Amstutz, Regional Director, Danish Refugee Council Horn

of Africa & Yemen, Kenya

Liza Schuster, Co-Founder of Afghanistan Migrants Advice and

Support Organization (AMASO), Afghanistan & Sociologist at City

University London, United Kingdom

Ahmed Waqas Javaid, Return Counsellor and Researcher, WELDO,

Pakistan

Questions/discussion

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16.30 – 17.30 Panel IV. Return as part of migration management

Chaired by Zuzana Vatráľová, Head of the International Organization for Migration

(IOM) Office in the SR

Panellists:

Dimitris Avramopoulos, European Commissioner for Migration,

Home Affairs and Citizenship

William Lacy Swing, Director General of the International

Organization for Migration (IOM)

Robert Kaliňák, Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Interior of

the Slovak Republic

Questions/discussion

18.30 Guided walking tour and Post-socialist bus tour in the

Bratislava city centre (by invitation only)

20.00 Dinner (by invitation only)

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7 JULY 2016 - DAY 2

09.00 - 09.30 Registration and refreshment

09.30 – 11.00 Panel V. Approaches to rejected asylum-seekers and migrants

with challenges to return

Main questions/issues:

Reasons for non-return (e.g. situation in the countries of origin,

unknown identity of a migrant)

Measures to overcome obstacles for return and their impact on

return policy effectiveness

Feasibility and performance of forced and (assisted) voluntary

returns

Situations of protracted irregularity and vulnerabilities of

migrants with challenges to return

Chaired by Vladimír Bilčík, Head of EU Program, Research Center of the Slovak

Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA), Slovak Republic

Panellists:

Dana Spinant, Head of Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit,

Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European

Commission, Belgium

Laura Hayward, Managing Consultant, ICF International (EMN

Service Provider), United Kingdom

Patrick Schmidtke, Head of Return, International Projects and

Integrated Return Management Unit, Federal Office for Migration

and Refugees, Germany

Kristina Rännar, Return Process Specialist at Quality Department,

Swedish Migration Agency, Sweden

Lilana Keith, Advocacy Officer - Borders, Detention And Children,

Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented

Migrants (PICUM), Belgium

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Martijn Pluim, Director for the Eastern Dimension, International

Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Austria

Questions/discussion

11.00 – 11.30 Concluding remarks and closing

Dana Spinant, Head of Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit,

Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European

Commission, Belgium

Igor Slobodník, Ambassador-at-Large for Migration, Ministry of

Foreign and European Affairs, Slovak Republic

11.30 Lunch

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Speakers and Chairs (listed in order of the conference schedule)

OPENING AND KEYNOTE SPEECHES

KALIŇÁK, Robert

Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Interior of the Slovak

Republic

Robert Kaliňák is the Deputy Prime Minister and from 2016

serves his third term as the Minister of Interior of the Slovak

Republic. During his political career as a Member of Parliament for the party

SMER-SD, he was a chairman of the Special Control Committee under the National

Council for overseeing activities of the Slovak Information Service, as well as a

member of the National Council Committee on Defence and Security, member of

the Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and member of

the Bratislava City Council in 2010 - 2012. In 2006 - 2010 he was appointed Deputy

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior for the first time. During 2004 - 2006 he

was a Chairman of the Special Control Committee under the National Council for

overseeing activities of the National Security Authority, and between 2002 - 2006

also a Chairman of the National Council Committee on Defence and Security. In

1990s until 2002 Mr. Kaliňák worked in various legal positions at lawyer's offices

and a commercial law office. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the

Comenius University in Bratislava where he also completed his postgraduate

studies in commercial law.

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SWING, William Lacy

Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Headquarters, Switzerland

Ambassador William Lacy Swing was re-elected to his five-year

term as IOM Director General in 2013. William Lacy Swing’s

diplomatic career has spanned some forty years including six postings as

Ambassador – South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo

(exZaire), the former People’s Republic of the Congo and Haiti. Later, he served as

the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Chief of Mission for

Western Sahara, United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara

(MINURSO) and as well as the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General

for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where he led largest UN

peacekeeping operation in history. Over his career, Ambassador Swing has

received several awards including e.g. the American Foreign Service Association's

award for Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy. He graduated from

Catawba College in North Carolina and Yale University and did his post-graduate

studies at Tübingen University, Germany.

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PANEL I. ENHANCING COOPERATION WITH COUNTRIES OF RETURN FROM THE

EU PERSPECTIVE

VATRÁĽOVÁ, Zuzana

Head of the International Organization for Migration Office (IOM)

in the Slovak Republic

Zuzana Vatráľová has served as the Head of the IOM Office in the

Slovak Republic since 2004. In 2003, she worked at IOM as a

coordinator of the information campaign on Preventing Human Trafficking in

Slovakia. From 1997 to 2002, she worked as a reporter for BBC Bratislava and

London. Prior to that, she had been a project manager at the National Agency for

Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (NADSME) and she had also

worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. She graduated in

Journalism from the Faculty of Arts at Comenius University in Slovakia, and

accomplished postgraduate studies at the Karol Rybárik Institute of International

Relations of the Law Faculty at the Comenius University.

ONIDI, Olivier

Deputy Director General, Directorate-General for Migration and

Home Affairs, European Commission, Belgium

Olivier Onidi is the Deputy Director General of the Directorate

General for Migration and Home Affairs at the European

Commission since 1st June 2016 with the specific task to coordinate the

Commission-wide work related to the Central Mediterranean Route in the context

of the refugees crisis. Previously he was appointed Director for the European

Mobility Network within Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport; Deputy

Head of Cabinet of the Energy Commissioner, Mr. Günther H. Oettinger; Head of

Unit for Air Transport, Aviation Safety and Environment and Head of the Satellite

Navigation System Programme – GALILEO. His first posts in the Commission were

an assistant to Director-General in the areas of Energy & Transport; External

Relations; the Secretariat General; and in the cabinet of the Commissioner for

Research and Development, Innovation, Education and Training. Before joining the

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Commission, he worked as an Adviser to the Executive Committee of Belgacom

and as a Public Policy Manager at American Express International. Mr. Onidi holds

a Master’s degrees in Economics, in European Studies and in Business

Administration.

KÖRNER, Berndt

Deputy Executive Director, FRONTEX, Poland

Berndt Körner has been a Deputy Executive Director since January

2016. During his career for the Austrian state administration he

held various posts working as a civil servant in Burgenland, legal

expert in Austrian Federal Chancellery, member of a team preparing Austria’s

accession to Schengen as well as head of the Ministry of Interior’s department

responsible for general security matters and then the department responsible for

migration, visa matters and legal aspects of border control. During the Austrian EU

Presidency in 2006, Mr. Körner chaired the Council Working Groups "Schengen

Evaluation" and "Frontiers". In 2010, he joined the Council of the EU, where he

worked as a seconded national expert for Schengen evaluation until 2013. For

nearly two years before taking up his post at Frontex, Mr. Körner served in Albania

as an expert on Integrated Border Management at PAMECA IV, an EU funded

technical assistance project that assists key Albanian law enforcement agencies by

offering expertise drawn from EU Member States. Besides, he was lecturing at

various seminars and workshops for e.g. European Police College (CEPOL),

Academy of European Law (ERA) and the Soros Foundation. He graduated in Law

at the University in Graz, Austria.

OOSTELBOS, Walter

Strategic Policy Advisor at Migration Policy Department, Ministry

of Security and Justice, Netherlands

Walter Oostelbos is an experienced career diplomat who is

currently seconded as an advisor to the Migration Policy

Department of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Security and Justice. His main field of

interest is the external dimension of the EU migration policy. During the

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Netherlands EU Presidency he has been the chair of the EU High Level Working

Group on Asylum and Migration. In his previous position he worked as the Head of

the Latin America and Caribbean Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before

that, he wrote the national human rights report for the first Universal Periodic

Review of the Netherlands in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2008. He

was also posted in New York and Manila. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law and

a Master’s degree in History from Utrecht University, Netherlands.

SLOBODNÍK, Igor

Ambassador-at-Large for Migration, Ministry of Foreign and

European Affairs, Slovak Republic

Igor Slobodník has been appointed Ambassador-at-Large for

Migration in 2016. He started his diplomatic career in 1992 in

Prague, at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia as Private

Secretary to the Minister. He occupied several positions at the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs of Slovakia, as well as at the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic. In

1993, he became Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Slovakia in Denmark.

In 1997, he was appointed Ambassador of Slovakia to the United Kingdom, later

serving as Political Director at the Ministry of Defence. In 2004, he became the

Permanent Representative of Slovakia to the North Atlantic Council. In 2008, he

took the position of the Political Director at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From

2010 to 2015, Mr. Slobodník served as Ambassador of Slovakia to the Federal

Republic of Germany. Prior to his current position, he held the post of the State

Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovakia with

responsibility for the security policy, external economic relations, development

assistance, international organizations, the countries of the Eastern Partnership,

Africa, Asia and Pacific as well as Americas. He graduated from the Faculty of Arts

at the Comenius University in Bratislava.

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PANEL II. PRACTICAL COOPERATION IN ACHIEVING SUSTAINABLE RETURN AND

REINTEGRATION

PAASCHE, Erlend

Researcher on Return Migration, Norway

Erlend Paasche has completed his doctoral thesis on the sociology

of return migration at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) as

part of the wider research project on Possibilities and Realities of

Return Migration (PREMIG). He has taken part in governmentally commissioned

evaluations of assisted returns from Norway to Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Kosovo

and Nigeria, and has conducted fieldworks in the latter three and in Syria. Next to

academic publications in migration studies, he has written a policy brief entitled

Why Assisted Return Programmes Must Be Evaluated. He obtained a Master’s

degree in Middle East and North African Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway.

MAJIDI, Nassim (video contribution)

Co-Founder and Co-Director, Samuel Hall, Kenya

Nassim Majidi is the Co-Founder of Samuel Hall and Head of the

Migration Pillar where she leads evidence-based research and

policy development on migration and displacement. Covering

three continents (Africa, Asia, Europe) over the past ten years, her crosscutting

skills have led her to interview refugees, migrants and returnees in the world’s

border areas, conflict settings and countries of origin. Based on her knowledge of

migration actors, she has developed strategic programming initiatives, national

policies on migration, and monitoring reviews that have had a lasting impact. She

is also an Affiliate Researcher at Sciences Po’s CERI (Centre for International

Studies), specialising on return migration and has published more than twenty

academic and policy articles on migration issues. She teaches a graduate course

on Refugees & Migration as part of Sciences Po Lille’s Conflict and Development

Programme. Ms. Majidi was nominated in 2015 by the Norwegian Refugee Council

for the Nansen Refugee Award in recognition for her work on behalf of

Afghanistan’s displaced population. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Government

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from Cornell University, a Summa Cum Laude Masters in International Affairs and

Development Studies and a PhD in International Relations from Sciences Po Paris.

NGUYEN, Anh

Head of Migrant Assistance Division, International Organization

for Migration (IOM) Headquarters, Switzerland

Anh Nguyen is the Head of Migrant Assistance Division at

International Organization for Migration (IOM) Headquarters in

Switzerland. With over 20 years of private and public sector experience, he is

responsible for overseeing IOM's global approach to the protection and assistance

of migrants which include programing on IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and

Reintegration (AVRR) and Assistance to Vulnerable Migrants (AVM). AVM

particularly addresses the issue of human trafficking, children on the move and

marginalised and invisible migrant groups. In his previous IOM postings, he was

the Senior Regional Migrant Assistance Specialist for the IOM Regional Office for

South-Eastern, Eastern Europe and Central Asia where he had technical oversight

in programing related to migrant protection and assistance at the regional level

and supported the field missions to further the work and to ensure operational

excellence of project implementation. While posted in Ukraine, as the IOM Deputy

Chief of Mission and Senior Program Coordinator, he managed IOM’s largest

counter human trafficking program and was instrumental in advancing the current

IOM approach to combating human trafficking. Prior to joining IOM, he worked in

private sector where he held Director level positions for Pacific Gas and Electric

Company based in California, USA and Altitude Software based in Lisbon, Portugal.

He holds a Bachelors of Art in Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz

and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

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DUSSART, Anne

Asylum and Migration Director of Caritas International & Member

of the Steering Committee at European Reintegration Support

Organisations (ERSO), Belgium

Anne Dussart is Asylum and Migration Director of Caritas

International Belgium with responsibility inter alia for strategic planning of social

programmes and other areas including managing guardians of unaccompanied

minors, integration of refugees and resettlement, voluntary return and

reintegration. At the same time she is Member of the Migration Working Group

Caritas Europa as well as Member of the Steering Committee of the European

Reintegration Support Organisations (ERSO) which she joined in 2009. Within

ERSO she is engaged in preparation of tailor-made packages of pre-return

counselling and reintegration; provision of support to civil society organisations

and communities in countries of return; promotion of voluntary return and

influencing the policy dialogue on migration and development among EU Member

States, European Commission and local authorities in countries of return; as well

as maintaining a network of non-governmental return counselling and support

organisations working and co-operating closely in the field of migration and

development to promote good practice and high quality standards. She is a law

graduate from the University of Louvain, Belgium.

HO, Po Ling

Programme Manager, European Reintegration Network (ERIN),

Netherlands

Po Ling Ho is the Programme Manager of the European

Reintegration Network (ERIN) programme which is led by the

Netherlands. In the past few years, she has been engaged in the management of

various projects at both national and European level, varying from national AVR

programme, return and reintegration to capacity building. She started working in

the field of migration in 1999. She gained experience in asylum (e.g. interviews

with asylum seekers, processing asylum claims, mitigation) and return (e.g.

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obtaining (emergency) travel documents, advisory activities regarding

administrative and international affairs).

WAHEDOVÁ, Isabelle

Czech expert seconded as International Cooperation Officer at

Asylum and Migration Thematic Unit, Directorate-General for

International Cooperation and Development, European

Commission, Belgium

Isabelle Wahedová is a Czech national expert seconded to the European

Commission's Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development

(DG DEVCO) since 2013. She works as International Cooperation Officer in the

thematic unit Migration and Asylum. Ms. Wahedová leads on a number of dossiers

– in particular return and reintegration, children in migration, trafficking in human

beings and labour migration with a geographic focus on African, Caribbean and

Pacific countries and South Neighbourhood.

Prior to joining the Commission she represented the Czech Republic at the Council

working groups on Development Cooperation and on African, Caribbean and

Pacific countries, also during the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2009.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Media studies and Journalism and a Master's

degree in Sociology.

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PANEL III. PERSPECTIVES FROM COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN ON RETURN AND

REINTEGRATION

PAASCHE, Erlend

Researcher on Return Migration, Norway

See the section “Panel II.” above.

BOMBASSEI, Michele

Regional Migrant Assistance Specialist, International Organization

for Migration (IOM) Regional Office for West and Central Africa,

Senegal

Michele Bombassei has been working as IOM regional expert on

migrant assistance in Dakar, Senegal, covering counter-trafficking, assisted

voluntary returns, migrant and child protection, and protection in emergency

since January 2015. His prior assignments at IOM were mainly related to North

and East African region. During August 2011 – January 2015 he acted as the

Programme Coordinator and the Head of Operations at IOM Cairo on migrant

protection with focus on the East Africa migratory route. Before that he was

posted for a four-month period to Cairo, Egypt, where he served as the Multi-

Function Cluster Coordinator for the Libyan crisis ongoing from early 2011, and

was seconded for a month to Frontex in Warsaw, Poland, on the Libya crisis

response. In 2006 – 2011, he was present in Libya as the Head of Technical

Cooperation Unit at IOM Tripoli focusing on counter-trafficking, border and transit

centre management. Between January – February 2010 he took over also a short

assignment in Haiti in the aftermath of the 12 January earthquake. In 2004 – 2005,

he was Consultant at IOM Tunis where he dealt with youth mobility and irregular

migration. He graduated in Law and obtained his Master’s in International Affairs

from the Instituto di Studi di Politica Internazionale (ISPI) in Milan, Italy.

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AMSTUTZ, Heather

Regional Director, Danish Refugee Council Horn of Africa and Yemen, Kenya

Heather Amstutz is the Danish Refugee Council’s (DRC) Regional Director for the

Horn of Africa and Yemen (HoAY). She has over 15 years’ experience in the

management of displacement related operations in countries affected by conflict

and disasters. As the Regional Director, Ms. Amstutz currently oversees the

management of six country programmes in Somalia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Kenya,

Uganda and Djibouti. She was recently tasked to oversee and manage the start-up

of a new DRC country programme in Lesvos, Greece with a focus on providing

emergency assistance to the refugees and migrants arriving on the shores of

Greece. In the Horn of Africa and Yemen, the DRC is implementing a wide range of

displacement and solutions-oriented programming including the implementation

of a reintegration programme for voluntary returns from Norway to Somalia, the

return and reintegration of internally displaced persons within

Somalia and assisting voluntary returns from Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya to

Somalia. Additionally, DRC HoAY regional office hosts the Regional Mixed

Migration Secretariat (RMMS) as well as a multi-agency Regional Durable Solutions

Secretariat (ReDSS). She holds a Masters of International Relations from Catholic

University, Washington DC, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Wildlife Ecology and

Conservation, from North West Missouri State University.

SCHUSTER, Liza

Co-Founder of Afghanistan Migrants Advice and Support

Organization (AMASO), Afghanistan & Sociologist at the City

University London, United Kingdom

Liza Schuster is a Sociologist at the City University London and has

been conducting research in the field of forced migration for more than 20 years.

She began conducting fieldwork in Afghanistan in September 2012, and except for

six months in 2013, lived in Kabul until August 2015. In Afghanistan, she explored

both the consequences of forced return for Afghan migrants and their families and

the migration decision-making process. Together with Abdul Ghafoor, she

established a small non-governmental organisation AMASO to provide free,

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accurate, unbiased and up-to-date information to people thinking about leaving

Afghanistan. During the period of August 2014 ̶ August 2015 she was also the

Research Manager at the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University in Kabul, offering

courses on research methodology and mentoring Afghan academic staff. She

received her PhD in Political Science on Political Asylum in Britain and Germany

from the University of Southampton and has published extensively on asylum,

refuge and migration, more recently on forced return to Afghanistan as well as EU

asylum policy and practice.

JAVAID, Ahmed Waqas

Return Counsellor and Researcher, WELDO, Pakistan

Ahmed Waqas Javaid is an experienced Return Counsellor and his

current duties also involve research on the return of the

immigrants and their successful reintegration back into the

Pakistani society, support for the Returnee Assessment Program and the

development of business process improvement framework and methodologies in

the private sector. He has been active in the area of returns, reintegration and

resource management for the past 5 years. His international experience includes

programs and consultancies in the United Kingdom and Pakistan. He received his

Master’s in Management and Leadership from the University of Cumbria, United

Kingdom.

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PANEL IV. RETURN AS PART OF MIGRATION MANAGEMENT

AVRAMOPOULOS, Dimitris

European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and

Citizenship

Dimitris Avramopoulos is the European Commissioner for

Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship since November 2014.

Before becoming European Commissioner, he was Minister of National Defence of

Greece (two terms), Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Tourism Development,

Minister of Health and Social Solidarity and Mayor of Athens (two terms). He was

elected Member of the Parliament several times with the “New Democracy” party

(1993, 2004, 2007, 2009 and 2012). Mr. Avramopoulos served in the Diplomatic

Service of Greece from 1980 until 1993. He was Spokesman of the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs, Director of the Diplomatic Cabinet of the Greek Prime Minister and

Consul of Greece in Liège (Belgium) and in Geneva (Switzerland). He completed his

studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Athens and

his postgraduate studies on International Organisation at the Université libre de

Bruxelles.

SWING, William Lacy

Director General of the International Organization for Migration

(IOM)

See the section “Opening and Keynote Speeches” above.

KALIŇÁK, Robert

Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Interior of the Slovak Republic

See the section “Opening and Keynote Speeches” above.

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PANEL V. APPROACHES TO REJECTED ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND MIGRANTS WITH

CHALLENGES TO RETURN

BILČÍK, Vladimír

Head of EU Program, Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy

Association (RC SFPA)

Vladimír Bilčík heads the EU program at the Research Centre of the

Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA) and lectures on

European integration and international relations in the Department of Political

Science at Comenius University in Bratislava. In the past he advised the nominee

of the Slovak government in the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002 –

2003). He has researched and published on small Member States in the EU, EU

foreign policy, Eastern Partnership as well as the new EU Global Strategy. He

regularly contributes to public debate on European politics in Slovakia and will be

covering the Slovak EU Council Presidency for next year's Journal of Common

Market Studies Annual Review of the EU. He studied at Swarthmore College (B.A.),

University of Oxford (M.Phil) and Comenius University (PhD).

SPINANT, Dana

Head of Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit, Directorate-

General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission,

Belgium

Dana Spinant is the Head of Unit in charge of irregular migration

and return policy at the European Commission since March 2015. She joined the

European Commission in 2009 as advisor and then Head of Unit in charge of drugs

policy. Before joining the Commission, Ms. Spinant was the Editor of European

Voice, a weekly newspaper belonging to The Economist Group, between 2004 and

2009, having starting to work for the newspaper as Deputy Editor in 2002. Before

that she spent two years as deputy editor of Brussels-based news service

EUobserver.com. In parallel, Ms. Spinant worked, between 1998 and 2008, as

political commentator for several Romanian TV stations. In 1998-2001 Dana was a

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teaching assistant at the College of Europe in Bruges. Before coming to Brussels,

she was Editor-in-Chief at the news department of Antena 1 TV, in Romania and

worked for TV5-TV Sigma since 1992. Ms. Spinant studied journalism and

communication at the University of Bucharest. She obtained two masters degrees,

from the Institut Européen des Hautes Etudes Internationales (Nice) and the

College of Europe (Bruges).

HAYWARD, Laura

Managing Consultant, ICF International (EMN Service Provider),

United Kingdom

Laura Hayward is a Consultant at ICF International and part of the

European Migration Network Service Provider team. Since 2010

she has been leading and contributing to projects evaluating the European

Commission‘s legislative and policy action in the Justice and Home Affairs policy

areas. For the EMN this has included leading the studies on the dissemination of

information on voluntary return, identification of victims of trafficking in human

beings, irregular migration, circular migration and misuse of family reunification.

Currently she is a co-lead for the EMN Study on Returning Rejected Asylum

Seekers: Challenges and Good Practices.

SCHMIDTKE, Patrick

Head of Return at International Projects and Integrated Return

Management Unit, Federal Office for Migration and Refugees,

Germany

Patrick Schmidtke has been a Head of Return at the International

Projects and Integrated Return Management Unit in the German Federal Office for

Migration and Refugees (BAMF) since 2015 where he supervises the area of return

and international projects and is also in charge of the coordination of the

integrated return management. Prior to this he supervised the Unit of the

Cooperation with Security Agencies at BAMF and served as a legal adviser. He

studied law at the University of Kiel and acquired his PhD at the University of

Rostock in Germany.

26

RÄNNAR, Kristina

Return Process Specialist at Quality Department, Swedish

Migration Agency, Sweden

Kristina Rännar has been working at the Swedish Migration

Agency (SMA) in the fields of asylum, reception and return for 18

years. Currently, she is a Process Specialist on return in the department with

responsibility for decision making on standards and routines in the area of return

and implementation of new legislation. Prior to this she was responsible for

implementing the return directive. Since 2005 she has been representing SMA in

the Integration, Migration and Return Working Group at the EU level. Moreover,

she is engaged in the negotiations on bilateral readmission agreements and

implementing protocols and she also manages the Collaborative Interview Project

aiming at inviting delegations to Sweden for conducting interviews for the purpose

of verifying identity and citizenship.

KEITH, Lilana

Advocacy Officer – Border, Detention and Children, Platform for

International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants (PICUM),

Belgium

Lilana Keith is PICUM’s Advocacy Officer on Borders, Detention

and Children. She leads PICUM’s work to advance rights in the context of

immigration enforcement and on the rights and inclusion of undocumented

children, young people and families. Ms. Keith joined PICUM in 2011. She has

been involved in work to advance migrants’ rights since 2009, including through

community development and funding. She has an academic background in

international and European migration law and policy and social anthropology.

27

PLUIM, Martijn

Director for the Eastern Dimension and Research, International

Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Austria

Martijn Pluim works as a Director for the Eastern Dimension and

Research with responsibility for International Centre for Migration

Policy Development’s (ICMPD) support activities for the migration dialogues along

the Eastern Migratory Route. He oversees all capacity-building projects in Eastern

Europe and Asia, as well as ICMPD’s research activities on multiple topics, and

guides the teams in charge of the Irregular Migration & Return, Trafficking in

Human Beings and Border Management & Visa programmes. He started his career

with ICMPD in 1999. Having worked on a broad variety of migration-related

matters, he left in 2005 to work at the European Commission. There, he worked

on migration, asylum and border management issues. He returned to ICMPD in

2007. He graduated in international relations from the University of Amsterdam.

28

CONCLUDING REMARKS AND CLOSING

SPINANT, Dana

Head of Irregular Migration and Return Policy Unit, Directorate-

General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission,

Belgium

See the section “Panel V.” above.

SLOBODNÍK, Igor

Ambassador-at-Large for Migration, Ministry of Foreign and

European Affairs, Slovak Republic

See the section “Panel I.” above.

29

Notes

30

31

32

33

Migration in the EU and its Member States

EMN produces among others the following publications for the whole EU, its

Member States and Norway which deal with migration of third-country

nationals. Each publication is based on common specifications in order to

maintain comparability:

Annual Policy Reports

The report describes the most important legislative and policy developments

in the fields of migration and international protection at national and EU level

during the respective year. The report is supported by statistics which are not

compiled by Eurostat or Frontex. The national Annual Policy Reports provide

information and contribute to the European Commission’s Annual Report on

Immigration and Asylum, as well as to the European Asylum Support Office

(EASO)’s Annual Report on the Situation of Asylum in the European Union.

Country Factsheets on Migration

Annual factsheets include the most fundamental legislative and policy

developments as well as statistics on migration and international protection

for every EU Member State and Norway in the respective year.

Organisation of Asylum and Migration Policies

The study provides overview of the organisation of political, legislative and

institutional context of migration and international protection in the EU

Member States and Norway. It includes simplified Institutional Chart as an

annex.

Bulletin

Quarterly newsletter issued by the European Commission highlights recent EU

and national developments, outputs and statistics in the field of migration,

integration and international protection.

All the above EMN outputs are available at www.ec.europa.eu/emn.

34

EUROPEAN MIGRATION NETWORK (EMN)

The EMN provides up-to-date, objective, reliable and comparable

information on migration and international protection with a view to

supporting policymaking in the EU and its Member States. The EMN

acitvities are focused on third-country nationals.

The network is composed of National Contact Points for all EU Member

States and Norway as well as the European Commission. Coordinator of

the EMN National Contact Point for the Slovak Republic is the

International Organization for Migration (IOM), other members are the

Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic, Ministry of Labour, Social

Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic and Statistical Office of the

Slovak Republic.

More about the EMN available at:

www.ec.europa.eu/emn or www.emn.sk .

CONTACT US

EMN National Contact Point for the Slovak Republic

International Organization for Migration (IOM) –

Office in the Slovak Republic

Grösslingová 35

811 09 Bratislava

Tel.: 00421 2 5262 3335

Fax: 00421 2 5263 0093

Web: www.emn.sk, www.ec.europa.eu/emn

E-mail: ncpslovakia@iom.int