On Monday 1 February, a charter flight left Belgium for Baghdad. Aboard were 106 Iraqis who had signed up for the voluntary return programme. Fedasil took this initiative due to the high number of persons applying for a voluntary return to this region in the last months. In 2015, more than 4,000 migrants chose to voluntarily leave Belgium for their country of origin. One out of every 4 voluntary returns was to Iraq (1,000 Iraqis).

Belgium is the first European country to organise a charter flight for a voluntary return. Usually, the returns happen through regular airlines. As in the case of standard voluntary returns through regular airlines, the police and army were not involved in the above-mentioned operation.

For more information, please visit the website of Fedasil.