IOM is today launching a new information campaign to provide impartial information, counselling and referral for voluntary return assistance to irregular migrants stranded in France's Nord-Pas-de-Calais region after having repeatedly failed to enter illegally into the United Kingdom.

The initial 6-month programme, co-funded by the UK (information component) and France (assisted voluntary return component), is carried out in coordination with the relevant French and British authorities and with the support of partner NGOs. It is part of IOM's efforts to provide humanitarian responses to the needs of stranded migrants who remain in the clutches of unscrupulous smuggling networks.

An IOM migrant information specialist based in Calais will provide undocumented migrants with objective information on the risks and realities of irregular immigration to the UK and inform them of the possibility of free-of-charge voluntary return assistance and financial reintegration assistance of up to Euro 2'000, to be provided through France's governmental l'Agence Nationale de l'Accueil des Etrangers et des Migrations, ANAEM (http://www.anaem.social.fr).

Information material in eleven languages (Amharic, Arabic, English, Farsi, French, Hindi, Pushto, Somali, Sorani (Kurdish), Tigrignia and Urdu) will be distributed to the migrants who largely sleep outside, in and around Calais.

"The aim of the programme is to establish a strong dialogue with the migrants to find alternative, humanitarian solutions to the harsh realities they face day after day as they fail to reach the UK," says IOM's Chief of Mission in Paris, Florian Forster.

Hundreds of undocumented migrants remain marooned in Northern France after having been lured by criminal gangs into long and perilous journeys in the hope of finding a better future in the UK.

"Once in Northern France, many migrants still believe that if they manage to cross the Channel, they will find employment and be able to regularize their status over time," says Forster. "The reality is vastly different as undocumented migrants in the UK have no hope of regularizing their status through an amnesty. They will remain particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and will also have to live under the constant threat of arrest, detention and forcible return for illegal entry into the UK, as is also the case in France, is a criminal offence."

Migrants who wish to benefit from international protection under the Refugee Convention will be referred for advice and support to the competent voluntary agencies and authorities.

For further information, please contact:

Florian Forster
Chief of Mission
IOM Paris
Tel: +33 1 40 44 06 91
E-mail: fforster@iom.int 

Nazénine Lajili
Migrant Information Specialist
IOM Calais
Tel +33 3 21 97 73 68
E-mail: nlajili@iom.int