The IMO views voluntary return as a welcome alternative to expulsion. A related programme is great success in several European countries. The organisation has helped close on 500,000 illegal emigrants from a hundred countries within the preceding five years, and Russia would do well to emulate, remarked Branson McKinley.
The IMO provides migrants with air tickets, visas, and readjustment grants on monetary donations from countries active on the programme. Our interviewee highlighted the importance of convincing illegal migrants that voluntary return is preferable to expulsion, morally and legally alike.
Russia is currently hosting more than a million and a half illegal immigrants, mostly from other post-Soviet countries, reports the Federal Migration Service.
Russia has an observer's status on the International Migration Organisation since 1992. The IMO presently has a total 102 member countries, and 29 observers.
