Immigrant Repatriation

Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the process of returning military personnel to their place of origin following a war. It also applies to diplomatic envoys, international officials as well as expatriates and migrants in time of international crisis. For refugees, asylum seekers and illegal migrants, repatriation can mean either voluntary return or deportation.

Repatriation of humans

Overview and clarification of terms

Voluntary vs. forced return

Voluntary return is the return of eligible persons, such as refugees, to their country of origin or citizenship on the basis of freely expressed willingness to such return. Voluntary return, unlike expulsion and deportation, which are actions of sovereign states, is defined as a personal right under specific conditions described in various international instruments, such as the OAU Convention, along with customary international law.

Certain countries offer financial support to refugees and immigrants in order to facilitate the process of starting a new life in their country of origin. Examples of 21st century voluntary return include the Danish government, which in 2009 began offering £12,000 each to immigrants to return, Switzerland offering approximately 6,500 Francs, targeted for business startups upon returning home, as well as Ireland. In 2016, Germany allocated €150 million over three years for migrants willing to return, and the Swedish government began offering £3,500 each. 544 Nigerians returned home from Switzerland in 2013. This financial support may also be considered as residency buyouts.

Two countries may have a re-admission agreement, which establishes procedures, on a reciprocal basis, for one state to return irregular non-nationals to their country of origin or a country through which they have transited. Illegal immigrants are frequently repatriated as a matter of government policy. Repatriation measures of voluntary return, with financial assistance, as well as measures of deportation are used in many countries.

As repatriation can be voluntary or forced, the term is also used as a euphemism for deportation. Involuntary or forced repatriation is the return of refugees, prisoners of war, or civil detainees to their country of origin under circumstances that leave no other viable alternatives. According to modern international law, prisoners of war, civil detainees, or refugees refusing repatriation, particularly if motivated by fears of political persecution in their own country, should be protected from refoulement and given, if possible, temporary or permanent asylum.Perruchoud, Richard and Jillyanne Redpath-Cross (eds.), Glossary on Migration, Second Edition, International Organisation for Migration, International Migration Law, No. 25, Geneva, 2011. The forced return of people to countries where they would face persecution is more specifically known as refoulement, which is against international law.

Repatriation vs. return

While repatriation necessarily brings an individual to his or her territory of origin or citizenship, a return potentially includes bringing the person back to the point of departure. This could be to a third country, including a country of transit, which is a country the person has traveled through to get to the country of destination. A return could also be within the territorial boundaries of a country, as in the case of returning internally displaced persons and demobilized combatants. The distinction between repatriation and return, voluntary or involuntary, is not always clear.

Types of human repatriation

Medical repatriation

Repatriation is linked with health care due to the costs and resources associated with providing medical treatment to travelers and immigrants pursuing citizenship. For example, if a foreign national is in the United States with a visa and becomes ill, the insurance that the visa holder has in his or her native country may not apply in the United States, especially if it is a country with universal health care coverage. This scenario forces hospitals to choose one of three options:
* Limit their services to emergency care only (as per the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act)
* Offer charity care free of charge or at a reduced rate
* Repatriate the patient back to his or her native country where he or she will be covered according to that country's policy
Determining which option is the most ethical is often very challenging for hospital administrators.

In some cases, a traveler's personal insurance company is required to repatriate the patient for medical treatment. The method of repatriation could be via regular flight, by ground, or by air ambulance. Medical repatriation is different from the act of medical evacuation.

Post–World War II

In the 20th century, following all European wars, several repatriation commissions were created to supervise the return of war refugees, displaced persons, and prisoners of war to their country of origin. Repatriation hospitals were established in some countries to care for the ongoing medical and health requirements of returned military personnel. In the Soviet Union, the refugees seen as traitors for surrendering were often killed or sent to Siberian concentration camps.

Issues surrounding repatriation have been some of the most heatedly debated political topics of the 20th and 21st centuries. Many forced back to the Soviet Union by Allied forces in World War II still hold this forced migration against the United States of America and the United Kingdom.

The term ''repatriation'' was often used by Communist governments to describe the large-scale state-sponsored ethnic cleansing actions and expulsion of national groups. Poles born in territories that were annexed by the Soviet Union, although deported to the State of Poland, were settled in the annexed former German territories (referred to in Polish as the Regained Territories). In the process they were told that they had returned to their Motherland.

Battlefield casualties

The Korean War marked the first time that the United States or any nation began returning the bodies of battlefield casualties as soon as possible. During Operation Glory, which followed the Korean Armistice Agreement, thousands of remains were exchanged by both sides. The practice of immediately recovering casualties continued for United States during the