The Effects of Assisted Voluntary Return Programs on Marginalized Women: A Critique of the IOM and UNHCR

This paper examines the evolution of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) from humanitarian agencies to migration management bodies through the use of Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) Programs to repatriate asylum seekers. In this paper, I argue that the normative shift toward the use of AVRs by International Organizations (IOs) is detrimental to Global South migrant women because it presents them with a forced decision to return to their countries of origin in exchange for money at the cost of surrendering their access to the refugee regime