The Migrant Resource Centre in Baghdad, jointly with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MoLSA), assists returning migrants to reintegrate to their communities of return safely, voluntary and in dignity.
Furthermore, it serves as a referral centre for returnees, providing information on post-arrival assistance, legal processes, and vocational training centres.
In particular, MRC services include:
- Psycho-social support for returnees, to help returnees to establish social ties with their families, communities and homeland.
- Refer returnees to public (and private) sector and service providers for post-arrival assistance, legal processes and vocational trainings.
- Courses on how to prepare a CV and how to pass a job interview.
- Courses on Business Innovation. These courses are done in cooperation with the Business Incubators Unit in the Department of Labour and Vocational Training of MoLSA. They aim to educate and guide people that have access to local job market on business opportunities.
According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, returnees approach the MRC from different countries, including the European MS and the UK. The information provided by the MRC allows persons to gain access to a wide range of locally available services on reintegration matters.
Active and available programs for reintegration in Iraq:
- Loan fund programme: An initiative for economic reintegration that is present in the MoLSA and facilitated by the MRC.
- A referral system from the Ministry of Migration Displaced (MoMD) to MoLSA is in place to better coordinate the reintegration efforts for the benefits of the returning individuals. This initiative is specifically targeted towards recent returnees from Belarus and Lithuania.
- National Referral Mechanism (NRM): The NRM was established under the MoMD and was piloted in selected governorates with an objective to facilitate the reintegration of returnees from abroad to their host communities by providing referrals to services responding to the economic, education, health, and psycho-social needs of returnees. The expansion of NRM is envisaged.
- Support of International Community to the Government of Iraq. A number of initiatives are being implemented in Iraq to support local authorities in their reintegration efforts.
*Reports and other detailed information is located in the Resources section of this website*
MRC plays role in supporting Public-Private Collaborations on reintegration in Iraq
MRC expanded its services by operationalisation of the Reintegration Information Desk (MRC-RID) within MOLSA. The MRC – RID increases the information flow by establishing channels that link returnees with the active reintegration programmes and service providers.
The Government of Iraq is the main duty-barer on reintegration of returnees from abroad. Private sector carries a great potential in offering support to the Government in this regard, including via the establishment of public-private collaborations. These collaborations may serve as a tool to deliver livelihoods and economic/employment and social services for returnees, including:
- supply-side mapping to identify returnee characteristics relevant to their employability, namely skills, knowledge, and abilities;
- demand-side mapping to identify enterprises with the capacity to provide jobs, internships, trainings, expertise, and in-kind support;
- identifying business cases to link company contributions to individual returnees and developing a private sector engagement roadmap to determine how efforts can be maximised.
To strengthen public private collaborations on reintegration, a Multi-Stakeholder Platform was launched with the support of International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in 2022 in Iraq. The Platform brings together public and private sector entities, which are either mandated or willing and interested to partake in coordinated activities and dialogue contributing to sustainable reintegration of returnees in their homeland.