With Europe slamming gates, thousands of Africans return home via EU programme
Conakry (Guinea): When Oumar Bella Diallo boarded a plane home to the West African nation of Guinea in July, the weary 24-year-old thought his migration ordeal was over.
He had spent almost a year trying to reach Europe. He said he was attacked by police and scammed for money as he crossed Mali, Algeria and Niger, at one point limping past corpses in the desert. After seeing fellow migrants die from hunger and exhaustion, he gave up. He is among tens of thousands of Africans returning home with the help of the International Organisation for Migration, as Europe spends millions of dollars to deter migrants before they reach its shores. The European Union-funded IOM program pays for return flights and promises follow-up assistance.
But migrants tell The Associated Press that promises by the United Nations-affiliated organisation are not fulfilled, leaving them to face trauma, debt and family shame on their own. Desperation could fuel new migration attempts.
The AP spoke to three returnees in Gambia and four in Guinea, and was shown a WhatsApp group of over 50 members founded around returnees’ frustration with the IOM. They described months of reaching out to the IOM with no reply.
Diallo said he told the IOM he wanted to start a small business. But all he has received is a phone number for an IOM counsellor and a five-day orientation course on accountability, management and personal development. He said many returnees had trouble grasping it because of low education levels.
“Even yesterday, I called him,” Diallo said. “They said for the moment, we have to wait until they call us. Every time, if I call them, that’s what they tell me.” He said he asked for medical help with a foot injury on his migration attempt, but was told it was impossible.
As the oldest child of a single mother, the responsibility for supporting relatives weighs heavily.
“If there’s not so much money, you’re the head of the family too,” he said.
The IOM program is financed almost completely by the EU and was launched in 2016. Between 2022 and 2025, it repatriated over 100,000 sub-Saharan migrants from North Africa and Niger.
Of the USD 380 million budget for that period, 58 per cent is allocated for post-return assistance, the IOM said.
Francois Xavier Ada, with the IOM regional office in West Africa, told the AP that over 90,000 returnees have started, and 60,000 completed, the reintegration process “tailored to individual needs.” Ada said that it can “support anything from housing, medical assistance or psychosocial services to business grants, vocational training and job placement.”
Migrants told the AP they had not received any of those.
Ada said the IOM was ”concerned” to learn of people kept waiting and “happy to look into these cases.” Agencies
