For millions of refugees, the ideal durable solution is to return home─home to a familiar language and culture; home to the family residence and personal belongings; home to loved ones and friends. On average, more than 4.5 million refugees and displaced persons voluntarily return home each year with the assistance and support of humanitarian organisations, including ICMC.

Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) frequently face significant obstacles when attempting the long journey home, where reintegration support can be critical to avoiding inter-community conflict, instability and the risk of further displacement. For many returnees, retuning to a homeland that has been irreversibly changed can be just as difficult to accept as a foreign country may be to an international refugee.

ICMC has been facilitating the safe and dignified voluntary return and reintegration of refugees and IDPs to their places of origin for over 50 years in a wide variety of contexts, ranging from South America, following the reinstitution of democratic governments in Argentina and Uruguay, to South East Asia after the end of the war in Vietnam, Kosovo following the end of the conflict in the Balkans and, most recently, in Indonesia following conflicts in Aceh and Maluku.

In addition to providing return assistance, legal aid and psychological support to returnees, ICMC activities include compiling and sharing updated information on the situation within home communities, pre-departure assistance and counselling, “go-and-see” visits for refugees, conflict transformation and peace building activities, livelihood start-up activities, advocating for housing and property restitution, and identifying, training and deploying local community organisers who live in affected areas and can support the return within their communities and at the relevant levels of government.