ABSTRACT
During Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ of 2015–16 along its southern border with North Africa, a large section of migrants arriving via the Central Mediterranean route were from Nigeria. However, from 2018 onwards this trend was reversed as an increasing number of Nigerian migrants were being returned from Libya, through the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) programme. This chapter is centred around experiences of Nigerian women who voluntarily returned to the city of Benin (Nigeria) in 2018. It draws upon ethnographic research conducted in Benin, weaving together semi-structured interviews with returnee women, state and non-state actors involved in the return and reintegration of the women, and participant observation in the reception centre and at the office of a governmental agency. The chapter will inquire – what do the experiences of returnee women tell us about the work of the IOM in migration management in transit countries? First, the chapter discusses why Nigerian women chose to migrate by exploring different factors that shape their motivations to travel to European countries. In the second part, the chapter addresses the IOM’s involvement in migration management in Libya by means of shedding light on the dire circumstances under which Nigerian migrant women agreed to participate in the organisation’s return programme and ‘voluntarily’ return to Nigeria. The aim of the chapter is to bring in a migrant perspective on the IOM’s return programmes and problematise aspects of the IOM’s activities in the field of migration management in transit countries such as Libya.
