Germany Offers Financial Assistance to Migrants Voluntarily Returning Home

The German Government and the International Organization for Migration are carrying out a project: REAG/GARP - Reintegration and Emigration Program for Asylum-Seekers in Germany (REAG); Government Assisted Repatriation Programme (GARP), which offers migrants from Georgia and other countries, operational and financial assistance to those migrants, who decide to voluntarily return to their home countries.

Within the (REAG/GARP) project, the reimbursement for travel expenses and the opportunity to get financial assistance for living, will also be provided for the migrants.

The program reads the support applies only to those Georgians who arrived in the country before March 27, 2017, when visa-free regime with the European Union was not in force.

In particular, the program applies to those Georgian citizens who meet the following criteria:

• Persons whose asylum application has been rejected in Germany
• Foreign citizens who have been granted a residence permit
• Persons whose asylum procedure has not been concluded yet.

As stated by the German side, such people, who use the program until February 28, 2018, have a chance of getting a monetary support of around € 3,000 euros in order to solve the issues related to the living conditions in their homeland, for example renting, construction or repair expenses.

An official website of the program reads that in 2016, more than 54,000 persons decided to get involved in the program and returned to their countries of origin.

By Thea Morrison