Developing good practices: promoting compliance with the Return Directive in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia

Latvian Centre for Human Rights (beneficiary) in cooperation with Lithuanian Red Cross Society (co-beneficiary) and Human Rights League, Slovakia (co-beneficiary) started to implement a project „Developing good practices: promoting compliance with the Return Directive in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia”

Project is co-financed by the European Union under the European Return Fund - Community Actions 2012

Project objectives

The overall objective of the project is to promote the compliance of the legislation and practices of return in Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia with the Return Directive and international standards through the exchange of experience and best practices among the return practitioners from several member states.

 The project has several specific objectives: to assess the implementation of the Return Directive and provide comparative evidence with identification of key challenges that need to be addressed; to exchange good/best practices and develop models of good/best practices, particularly as concerns monitoring mechanism of forced return, which has just recently been established (e.g. Lithuania), is in the process of its establishment (e.g. Latvia) and has not been established so far (e.g. Slovakia), as well as the identification and protection of vulnerable groups and the promotion of alternatives to detention; to develop cooperation between the return practitioners among  various member states; to promote exchange of information and cooperation between the return practitioners, international organisations and the EU agencies  (IOM, UNHCR, Council of Europe, Fundamental Rights Agency, FRONTEX etc.).

Project activities

The project activities will consist of the project meeting in Riga on the elaboration of methodology; study visits with the participation of the return practitioners to states with good practices on monitoring forced return, alternatives to detention and other issues (Austria and Belgium); national reports based on legal analysis, monitoring visits to detention centres and recommendations; national training seminars with the participation of at least 3 European stakeholders (Fundamental Rights Agency, IOM, UNHCR and other experts, including those from the states with good practices of monitoring forced return) and discussions on best models at national level; international conference on best practices of the implementation of the Return Directive in Riga; final report with the project's results, including comparative study highlighting the effect of various return practices applied by the selected Member States.

Project results

The project will result in raised awareness and developed models of good/best practices of the Return Directive's implementation in Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and potentially in other EU member states. The project's national and final reports will be disseminated to 200 various national stakeholders (the return practitioners, including border guards, judges, IOM and NGOs) and 200 European stakeholders (European Commission, IOM, UNHCR, Council of Europe, Fundamental Rights Agency, and other institutions and organisations dealing with return policies in the EU member states).

Project duration

1 August 2013 – 31 July 2015

Published: 2013-08-01