II. Humanitarian deportations 1. The IOM AVR program 6 “IOM remains convinced that, where feasible, AVRR is the most desirable form of return given that it takes the individual’s decision into account and allows returnees to prepare for their return while avoiding the stigma of deportation and its negative repercussions. It can also provide a viable and humanitarian response to migrants who are stranded and often destitute.” (http://avrr.eg.iom.int/aboutus) “Assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) is an indispensable part of a comprehensive approach to migration management aiming at orderly and humane return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in host or transit countries and wish to return voluntarily to their countries of origin” (IOM – Mission in Greece 2019: xviii). 7 The Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM) was founded in 1951 as an organization that aimed to regulate outward migration from Europe. In 1989 the organization was renamed the International Organization of Migration and had, by then, become a key agency in the field of “migration management” (Venturas, 2015). As an intergovernmental organization, IOM assists governments in their migration management plans. At the same time, as the opening excerpts indicate, the language of humanitarianism and human rights is central in IOM’s self-representation as well as a source of ethical legitimacy (Ashutosh and Mountz, 2011). The IOM Office in Greece The IOM Office in Greece operates according to the April 17, 1952 agreement between the Greek government and the organization. The Greek IOM office’s history and activities reflect the emigratory history of the country. For many years Greece was a country of outward migration and in the first decades of its operation (until the mid1970s), IOM Greece (then ICEM) assisted over 140,000 Greek national emigrants settle in the USA, Canada, Australia, and other overseas countries.5 During the 1980s, the Greek office organized and implemented the resettlement of 89,000 foreign immigrants (from Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa) to the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It was only in 2010 that IOM Greece started implementing AVRR (Assisted Voluntary 5 For a study that traces the early involvement of the ICEM in the management of emigrants leaving Greece for Australia, and which pays close attention to competition between shipping lines and airlines for this market, see Limnios-Sekeris (2015).