Returns to Somalia: Setting Protection and Livelihood Standards

This evaluation of DRC's Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) of Somalis from Norway to Mogadishu intervenes at the end of a first phase of the pilot: to assess, responsibly, outcomes of the project to prepare for future rounds of returns to Somalia, responsibly and respecting DRC’s mandate as a protection agency, with a strong presence in Somalia and portfolio of reintegration projects cutting across migration categories. This evaluation does not intervene at just any time in Somalia’s history, on the contrary: 2015 has seen an evolution in the official discourse on return in Somalia: discouraged until now, returns have become commonplace and span across legal categories – from refugees, to failed asylum seekers, from assisted to spontaneous returns. ‘Return’ as a concept, therefore needs to be unpacked and understood; ‘Reintegration’ equally. This research not only assesses the reintegration of the returnees in this pilot programme, but also pays close attention to the important question of the extent to which the protection of returnees to Mogadishu is being safeguarded. As a result, this research aims to set standards on what conditions of returns to Somalia are and what they should be.