The programme “Assistance for voluntary repatriation of migrants to the home country” will be continued in Belarus till May 2009. Implemented by the European Union, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration, the programme was initially supposed to end on December 31, 2008, Yuri Fedorov, head of the international cooperation department of the State Border Committee of Belarus, national coordinator of the project representing the border service, told a press conference in Minsk on December 18. The programme, which the IOM office in Belarus has been implementing since May 2007, is meant to create a steady system of support for migrants in their voluntary return to the home country. The European Commission provides financial support for the programme. The State Border Committee of Belarus, the Interior Ministry and several NGOs vigorously cooperate as part of the programme. According to the State Border Committee of Belarus, since the programme began, almost 120 migrants have received consultations. Help has been provided to 50 migrants in their return to home countries, including 13 migrants, who returned to Vietnam, 13 — Pakistan, 5 — Russia, 5 — Afghanistan as well as Georgia, Bangladesh, China, Turkey, and other countries. In addition Yuri Fedorov said, there is a problem of deporting Belarusian citizens from, as a rule, such countries as Germany, Sweden, Finland, and Great Britain. Belarusians often enter the countries using tourist visas, get jobs and consequently get arrested by police. Among them there are victims of slave trade. After their return to the motherland every case is thoroughly analysed.

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