Voluntary vs. forced return Voluntary return is the return of eligible persons, such as refugees, to their
country of origin or citizenship based on freely expressed willingness to such return. Voluntary return, unlike expulsion and deportation, which are actions of sovereign states, is defined as a personal right under specific conditions described in various international instruments, such as the
OAU Convention, along with customary international law. Examples of contemporary repatriation include Germany repatriating around 320,000 Bosnian refugees starting 1997, German readmission agreements with Romania and Bulgaria in 1993, expulsion of 21,000 Albanians in 1996 from Italy. Sweden and Italy applied in some cases detention prior to expulsion, which was described as
deterrence. Switzerland offering approximately 6,500 Francs, targeted for business startups upon returning home, as well as Ireland. In 2016, Germany allocated €150 million over three years for migrants willing to return, and the Swedish government began offering £3,500 each. 544 Nigerians returned home from Switzerland in 2013. This financial support may also be considered as residency buyouts. Two countries may have a re-admission agreement, which establishes procedures, on a reciprocal basis, for one state to return irregular non-nationals to their country of origin or a country through which they have transited. The forced return of people to any country where "life or freedom would be threatened" due to "race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" is against
Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees according to
non-refoulement.
Repatriation vs. return While repatriation necessarily brings an individual to their territory of origin or citizenship, a return potentially includes bringing the person back to the point of departure. This could be to a third country, including a country of transit, which is a country the person has traveled through to get to the country of destination. A return could also be within the territorial boundaries of a country, as in the case of returning
internally displaced persons and demobilized combatants. The distinction between repatriation and return, voluntary or involuntary, is not always clear.
Medical repatriation Repatriation is linked with health care due to the costs and resources associated with providing medical treatment to travelers and immigrants pursuing citizenship. For example, if a foreign national is in the United States with a visa and becomes ill, the insurance that the visa holder has in their native country may not apply in the United States, especially if it is a country with
universal health care coverage. This scenario forces hospitals to choose one of three options: • Limit their services to emergency care only (as per the
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act) • Offer charity care free of charge or at a reduced rate • Repatriate the patient back to their native country where he or she will be covered according to that country's policy Determining which option is the most ethical is often very challenging for hospital administrators. In some cases, a traveler's personal insurance company may repatriate the patient back to their home country for medical treatment due to the cost of medical expenses in the current country. The method of repatriation could be via regular flight, by ground, or by air ambulance which ever is deemed necessary subjected to the medical condition of patient and cost in mind. Medical repatriation is different from the act of
medical evacuation.
Repatriation of foreign nationals abroad during wars Countries have repatriated their nationals who are abroad during the outbreak of a war. For example when World War II begun in 1939, the United States launched a repatriation effort to repatriate Americans who were either living or visiting Europe with 75,000 Americans being repatriated by early November 1939. At the beginning of the
Korean War, the United States repatriated its civilians from Korea sending them to Japan with a total of 1,655 persons being repatriated.
Post–World War II In the 20th century, several repatriation commissions were created to supervise the return of war refugees,
displaced persons, and
prisoners of war to their country of origin. Repatriation
hospitals were established in some countries to care for the ongoing medical and health requirements of returned military personnel. In the
Soviet Union, the refugees seen as traitors for surrendering were often killed or sent to
Siberian concentration camps. Issues surrounding repatriation have been some of the most heatedly debated political topics of the 20th and 21st centuries. Many
forced back to the Soviet Union by Allied forces in
World War II still hold this forced migration against the
United States of America and the
United Kingdom. The term
repatriation was often used by Communist governments to describe the large-scale state-sponsored
ethnic cleansing actions and
expulsion of national groups.
Poles born in territories that were annexed by the Soviet Union, although deported to the State of Poland, were settled in the annexed former
German territories (referred to in Polish as the
Regained Territories). In the process they were told that they had returned to their Motherland.
Decolonization resulted in repatriations. After the fall of the
Iron Curtain and end of
Bosnian War increased repatriation,
deportation and readmission agreements were observed in Europe.
Battlefield casualties The
Korean War marked the first time that the United States or any nation began returning the bodies of battlefield casualties as soon as possible. During
Operation Glory, which followed the
Korean Armistice Agreement, thousands of remains were exchanged by both sides. The practice of immediately recovering casualties continued for United States during the
Vietnam War.
China,
Japan,
Norway and
Serbia also have repatriation laws for their diaspora populations. The number of countries with repatriation laws has mushroomed since the
end of Soviet communism and most independent nations that were
once part of the communist domain in
Europe have since legislated repatriation laws. Many other countries such as
Jordan and
Sweden have (or have had) generous immigration policies with regard to the nation's
diaspora without having formally enacted repatriation laws. Such states can be described as practicing
common law repatriation. In comparison, one of the central tenets of the
Rastafari movement is the desirability of the repatriation of
black people from the
Americas and elsewhere back to
Africa. While
Ethiopia specifically has land available in
Shashamane to encourage this project, black people who are citizens of countries outside Africa do not have the
right of return to Africa, although as individuals they are free to try to
emigrate.
Psychological aspects Repatriation is often the "forgotten" phase of the
expatriation cycle; the emphasis for support is mostly on the actual period abroad. However, many repatriates report experiencing difficulties on return: one is no longer special, practical problems arise, new knowledge gained is no longer useful, etc. These difficulties are highly influenced by a number of factors including
self-management,
spouse's adjustment, time spent abroad and skill utilisation. What is crucial is that every individual perceives these factors in a different way. Reintegration is a process of re-inclusion or re-incorporation of a person into a group or a process, and may contribute to overcoming repatriation.
Pope Leo XIV includes "rejected migrants" as an example of the broadly defined "
poor" of the world in need of support. ==Repatriation of non-human entities==